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diff --git a/4089.txt b/4089.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b60b6cf --- /dev/null +++ b/4089.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8647 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of European Background of American History, +by E. P. Cheyney + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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Univ. of Pa. + +Vol. 2 Basis of American History, by Livingston Farrand, M.D., Prof. +Anthropology Columbia Univ. + +Vol. 3 Spain in America, by Edward Gaylord Bourne, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. +Yale Univ. + +Vol. 4 England in America, by Lyon Gardiner Tyler, LL.D., President +William and Mary College. + +Vol. 5 Colonial Self-Government, by Charles McLean Andrews, Ph.D., +Prof. Hist. Johns Hopkins Univ. + + +GROUP II. + +TRANSFORMATION INTO A NATION + +Vol. 6 Provincial America, by Evarts Boutell Greene, Ph.D., Prof. Hist, +and Dean of College, Univ. of Ill. + +Vol. 7 France in America, by Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D., Sec. +Wisconsin State Hist. Soc. + +Vol. 8 Preliminaries of the Revolution, by George Elliott Howard, +Ph.D., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Nebraska. + +Vol. 9 The American Revolution, by Claude Halstead Van Tyne, Ph.D., +Prof. Hist. Univ. of Michigan. + +Vol. 10 The Confederation and the Constitution, by Andrew Cunningham +McLaughlin, A.M., Head Prof. Hist. Univ. of Chicago. + + +GROUP III. + +DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATION + +Vol. 11 The Federalist System, by John Spencer Bassett, Ph.D., Prof. +Am. Hist. Smith College. + +Vol. 12 The Jeffersonian System, by Edward Channing, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. +Harvard Univ. + +Vol. 13 Rise of American Nationality, by Kendric Charles Babcock, +Ph.D., Pres. Univ. of Arizona. + +Vol. 14 Rise of the New West, by Frederick Jackson Turner, Ph.D., Prof. +Am. Hist. Univ. of Wisconsin. + +Vol. 15 Jacksonian Democracy, by William MacDonald, LL.D., Prof. Hist. +Brown Univ. + + +GROUP IV. + +TRIAL OF NATIONALITY + +Vol. 16 Slavery and Abolition, by Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D., Prof. +Hist. Harvard Univ. + +Vol. 17 Westward Extension, by George Pierce Garrison, Ph.D., Prof. +Hist. Univ. of Texas. + +Vol. 18 Parties and Slavery, by Theodore Clarke Smith, Ph.D., Prof. Am. +Hist Williams College. + +Vol. 19 Causes of the Civil War, by Admiral French Ensor Chadwick, +U.S.N., recent Pres. of Naval War Col. + +Vol. 20 The Appeal to Arms, by James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D., recent +Librarian Minneapolis Pub. Lib. + +Vol. 21 Outcome of the Civil War, by James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D., +recent Lib. Minneapolis Pub. Lib. + + +GROUP V. + +NATIONAL EXPANSION + +Vol. 22 Reconstruction, Political and Economic, by William Archibald +Dunning, Ph.D., Prof. Hist, and Political Philosophy Columbia Univ. + +Vol. 23 National Development, by Edwin Erle Sparks, Ph.D., Prof. +American Hist. Univ. of Chicago. + +Vol. 24 National Problems, by Davis R. Dewey, Ph.D., Professor of +Economics, Mass. Institute of Technology. + +Vol. 25 America as a World Power, by John H. Latane, Ph.D., Prof. Hist. +Washington and Lee Univ. + +Vol. 26 National Ideals Historically Traced, by Albert Bushnell Hart, +LL.D., Prof. Hist. Harvard Univ. + +Vol. 27 Index to the Series, by David Maydole Matteson, A.M. + + + + +COMMITTEES APPOINTED TO ADVISE AND CONSULT WITH THE EDITOR + +THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY + +Charles Francis Adams, LL D, President Samuel A Green, M.D., Vice- +President James Ford Rhodes, LL D, ad Vice President Edward Channing, +Ph.D., Prof History, Harvard Univ Worthington C Ford, Chief of Division +of MSS Library of Congress + +THE WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY + +Reuben G Thwaites, LLD, Secretary Frederick J Turner, Ph.D., Prof Hist +Univ of Wisconsin James D Butler LLD William W Wright, LLD Hon Henry E +Legler + +THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY + +Captain William Gordon McCabe, Litt D, President Lyon G Tyler, LL D, +Pres William and Mary College Judge David C Richardson J A C Chandler, +Professor Richmond College Edward Wilson James + +THE TEXAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY + +Judge John Henninger Reagan, President George P Garrison, Ph.D., Prof +Hist Univ of Texas Judge C W Rames Judge Zachary T Fullmore + + + + +THE AMERICAN NATION: A HISTORY + +VOLUME 1 + +EUROPEAN BACKGROUND OF AMERICAN HISTORY + +1300-1600 + +BY EDWARD POTTS CHEYNEY, A M. + +PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. + +WITH MAPS + + + + +TO MY FATHER + + + + +CONTENTS [Proofer's Note: Original page numbers included in CONTENTS +for reference purposes.] + +EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES...XV + +EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION...XXVII + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE...XXI + +I. THE EAST AND THE WEST (1200-1500)...3 + +II. ORIENTAL AND OCCIDENTAL TRADE-ROUTES (1200-1500)...22 + +III. ITALIAN CONTRIBUTIONS To EXPLORATION(1200-1500)...41 + +IV. PIONEER WORK OF PORTUGAL(1400-1527)...60 + +V. SPANISH MONARCHY IN THE AGE OF COLUMBUS (1474-1525)...79 + +VI. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF CENTRAL EUROPE (1400-1650)...104 + +VII. THE SYSTEM OF CHARTERED COMMERCIAL COMPANIES (1550-1700)...123 + +VIII. TYPICAL AMERICAN COLONIZING COMPANIES (1600-1628)...147 + +IX. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION ON THE CONTINENT (1500-1625)...168 + +X. RELIGIOUS WARS IN THE NETHERLANDS AND GERMANY (1520-1648)...179 + +XI. THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND THE CATHOLICS (1534-1660)...200 + +XII. THE ENGLISH PURITANS AND THE SECTS (1550-1689)...210 + +XIII. THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF ENGLAND (1500-1689)...240 + +XIV. THE ENGLISH COUNTY AND ITS OFFICERS (1600-1650)...261 + +XV. ENGLISH JUSTICES OP THE PEACE (1600-1650)...274 + +XVI. ENGLISH PARISH OR TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT (1600-1650)...290 + +XVII. CRITICAL ESSAY ON AUTHORITIES...316 + +INDEX...333 + + + + +MAPS + +[Proofer's Note: Maps and illustrations omitted.] + +MEDIAEVAL TRADE-ROUTES ACROSS ASIA (in colors) + +CONQUESTS OF THE OTTOMAN TURKS (1300-1525) (in colors) + +THE LAURENTIAN PORTOLANO OF 1351 + +PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES ON THE COAST OF AFRICA (1340-1498) + +TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF SPAIN (1230-1580) + +SPHERES OF INFLUENCE ASSIGNED TO ENGLISH COMMERCIAL COMPANIES ABOUT +1625 (in colors) + + + + +EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES + +That a new history of the United States is needed, extending from the +discovery down to the present time, hardly needs statement. No such +comprehensive work by a competent writer is now in existence. +Individual writers have treated only limited chronological fields. +Meantime there, is a rapid increase of published sources and of +serviceable monographs based on material hitherto unused. On the one +side there is a necessity for an intelligent summarizing of the present +knowledge of American history by trained specialists; on the other hand +there is need of a complete work, written in untechnical style, which +shall serve for the instruction and the entertainment of the general +reader. + +To accomplish this double task within a time short enough to serve its +purpose, there is but one possible method, the co-operative. Such a +division of labor has been employed in several German, French, and +English enterprises; but this is the first attempt, to carry out that +system on a large scale for the whole of the United States. + +The title of the work succinctly suggests the character of the series, +The American Nation. A History. From Original Materials by Associated +Scholars. The subject is the "American Nation," the people combined +into a mighty political organization, with a national tradition, a +national purpose, and a national character. But the nation, as it is, +is built upon its own past and can be understood only in the light of +its origin and development. Hence this series is a "history," and a +consecutive history, in which events shall be shown not only in their +succession, but in their relation to one another; in which cause shall +be connected with effect and the effect become a second cause. It is a +history "from original materials," because such materials, combined +with the recollections of living men, are the only source of our +knowledge of the past. No accurate history can be written which does +not spring from the sources, and it is safer to use them at first hand +than to accept them as quoted or expounded by other people. It is a +history written by "scholars"; the editor expects that each writer +shall have had previous experience in investigation and in statement. +It is a history by "associated scholars," because each can thus bring +to bear his special knowledge and his special aptitude. + +Previous efforts to fuse together into one work short chapters by many +hands have not been altogether happy; the results have usually been +encyclopaedic, uneven, and abounding in gaps. Hence in this series the +whole work is divided into twenty-six volumes, in each of which the +writer is free to develop a period for himself. It is the editor's +function to see that the links of the chain are adjusted to each other, +end to end, and that no considerable subjects are omitted. + +The point of view of The American Nation is that the purpose of the +historian is to tell what has been done, and, quite as much, what has +been purposed, by the thinking, working, and producing people who make +public opinion. Hence the work is intended to select and characterize +the personalities who have stood forth as leaders and as seers; not +simply the founders of commonwealths or the statesmen of the republic, +but also the great divines, the inspiring writers, and the captains of +industry. For this is not intended to be simply a political or +constitutional history: it must include the social life of the people, +their religion, their literature, and their schools. It must include +their economic life, occupations, labor systems, and organizations of +capital. It must include their wars and their diplomacy, the relations +of community with community, and of the nation with other nations. + +The true history, nevertheless, must include the happenings which mark +the progress of discovery and colonization and national life. Striking +events, dramatic episodes, like the discovery of America, Drake's +voyage around the world, the capture of New Amsterdam by the English, +George Rogers Clark's taking of Vincennes, and the bombardment of Fort +Sumter, inspired the imagination of contemporaries, and stir the blood +of their descendants. A few words should be said as to the make-up of +the volumes. Each contains a portrait of some man especially eminent +within the field of that volume. Each volume also contains a series of +colored and black-and-white maps, which add details better presented in +graphic form than in print. There being no general atlas of American +history in existence, the series of maps taken together will show the +territorial progress of the country and will illustrate explorations +and many military movements. Some of the maps will be reproductions of +contemporary maps or sketches, but most of them have been made for the +series by the collaboration of authors and editor. Each volume has +foot-notes, with the triple purpose of backing up the author's +statements by the weight of his authorities, of leading the reader to +further excursions into wider fields, and of furnishing the +investigator with the means of further study. The citations are +condensed as far as is possible while leaving them unmistakable, and +the full titles of most of the works cited will be found in the +critical essay on bibliography at the end of each volume. This constant +reference to authorities, a salutary check on the writer and a +safeguard to the reader, is one of the features of the work; and the +bibliographical chapters carefully select from the immense mass of +literature on American history the titles of the most authentic and the +most useful secondary works and sources. The principle of the whole +series is that every book shall be written by an expert for laymen; and +every volume must + +therefore stand the double test of accuracy and of readableness. +American history loses nothing in dramatic climax because it is true or +because it is truly told. As editor of the series I must at least +express my debt to the publishers, who have warmly adopted the idea +that truth and popular interest are inseparable; to the authors, with +whom I have discussed so often the problems of their own volumes and of +the series in general; especially to the members of the committees of +the Massachusetts Historical Society, Virginia Historical Society, +Texas Historical Society, and Wisconsin State Historical Society, whose +generous interest and suggestions in the meetings that I have held with +them were of such assistance in the laying out of the work; to the +public, who how have the opportunity of acting as judges of this +performance and whose good-will alone can prove that the series +justifies itself. + +ALBERT BUSHNELL HART. + + + + +EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION This first volume of the series supplies a needed +link between the history of Europe and the history of early America; +for whether it came through a Spanish, French, English, Dutch, or +Swedish medium, or through the later immigrants from Germany, from +Italy, and from the Slavic countries, the American conception of +society and of government was originally derived from the European. +Hence the importance at the outset of knowing what that civilization +was at the time of colonization. Professor Cheyney (chapters i. and +ii.) fitly begins with an account of mediaeval commerce, especially +between Europe and Asia, and the effect of the interposition of the +Turks into the Mediterranean, and how, by their disturbance of the +established course of Asiatic trade, they turned men's minds towards +other routes to Asia by sea. Thence he proceeds to show (chapter iii.) +how the Italians in navigation and in map-making exhibited the same +pre-eminence as in commerce and the arts, and why Italy furnished so +many of the explorers of the western seas in the period of discovery. +It is an easy transition in chapter iv. to the dramatic story of the +efforts of the Portuguese to reach India round Africa. The next step is +to describe in some detail (chapters v. and vi.) the system of +government and of commerce which existed in Spain, France, and Holland +in the sixteenth century; and the book will surprise the reader in its +account of the effective and far-reaching administration of the Spanish +kingdom, the mother of so many later colonies. This discussion is very +closely connected with the account of Spanish institutions in the New +World as described by Bourne in his Spain in America (volume III. of +the series), and we find the same terms, such as "audiencia," +"corregidor," and "Council of the Indies" reappearing in colonial +history. A much-neglected subject in American history is the +development of great commercial companies, which, in the hands of the +English, planted their first permanent colonies. To this subject +Professor Cheyney devotes two illuminating chapters (vii. and viii.), +in which he prints a list of more than sixty such companies chartered +by various nations, and then selects as typical the English Virginia +Company, the Dutch West India Company, and the French Company of New +France, which he analyzes and compares with one another. It is +significant that not one of these companies was Spanish, for that +country retained in its own hands complete control both of its colonies +and of their commerce. + +Since English colonization was almost wholly Protestant and added a new +centre of Protestant influence, Professor Cheyney has, in two chapters +(ix. and x.), given some account of the Reformation and of the +religious wars of the sixteenth century. He brings out not only the +differences in doctrine but in spirit, and shows how, by the Thirty +Years' War, Germany was excluded from the possibility of establishing +American colonies, a lack which that country has found it impossible to +repair in our day. + +The mother-country for the American nation was in greater part England; +even Scotland and Ireland contributed their numbers and their +characteristics only in the third and fourth generations of the +colonies. A considerable part of this volume, therefore (chapters xi. +to xvi.), is given up to a description of the conditions of England at +the time of the departure of the first colonists. Everybody knows, and +nobody knows clearly, the religious questions in England from Elizabeth +to James II. Here will be found a distinct and vivid account of the +struggle between churchmen, Catholics, Puritans, and Independents for +influence on the Church of England or for supremacy in the state. Why +did the Catholics in general remain loyal? Why were the Puritans +punished? Why were the Independents at odds with everybody else? Why +did not Presbyterianism take root in England? These are all questions +of great moment, and their adjustment by Professor Cheyney prepares the +way for the account of the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth colony in +Tyler's England in America (volume IV. of the series). An absolute +essential for an understanding of colonial history before the +Revolution is a clear idea of the political system of England, both in +its larger national form and in its local government. Hence the +importance of Professor Cheyney's chapters on English government. The +kings' courts, council, and Parliament all had their effect upon the +governors' courts, councils, and assemblies of the various colonies. +Prom the English practice came the superb, fundamental notion of a +right of representation and of the effectiveness of a delegated +assembly. In local government the likeness was in some respects even +closer; and Professor Cheyney's account of the English county court, +and especially of the township or parish, will solve many difficulties +in the later colonial history. In some ways Professor Cheyney's +conclusions make more striking and original the development of the +astonishing New England town-meetings. As the volume begins with the +rise of the exploring spirit, it is fitting that Prince Henry the +Navigator should furnish the frontispiece. The bibliography deals more +than those of later volumes with a literature which has been a tangled +thicket, and will shorten the road for many teachers and students of +these subjects. The significance of Professor Cheyney's volume is that, +without describing America or narrating American events, it furnishes +the necessary point of departure for a knowledge of American history. +The first question to be asked by the reader is, why did people look +westward? And the answer is, because of their desire to reach the +Orient. The second question is, what was the impulse to new habits of +life and what the desire for settlements in distant lands? The answer +is, the effect of the Reformation in arousing men's minds and in +bringing about wars which led to emigration. The third question is, +what manner of people were they who furnished the explorers and the +colonists? The answer is found in these pages, which describe the +Spaniard, the French, the Dutch, and especially the English, and show +us the national and local institutions which were ready to be +transplanted, and which readily took root across the sea. + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE The history of America is a branch of that of Europe. +The discovery, exploration, and settlement of the New World were +results of European movements, and sprang from economic and political +needs, development of enterprise, and increase of knowledge, in the Old +World. The fifteenth century was a period of extension of geographical +knowledge, of which the discovery of America was a part; the sixteenth +century was a time of preparation, during which European events were +taking place which were of the first importance to America, even though +none of the colonies which were to make up the United States were yet +in existence. From the time of the settlement forward, the only +population of America that has counted in history has been of European +origin. The institutions that characterize the New World are +fundamentally those of Europe. People and institutions have been +modified by the material conditions of America; and the process of +emigration gave a new direction to the development of American history +from the very beginning; but the origin of the people, of their +institutions, and of their history was none the less a European one. +The beginnings of American history are therefore to be found In +European conditions at the time of the foundation of the colonies. +Similar forces continued to exercise an influence in later times. The +power and policy of home governments, successive waves of emigration, +and numberless events in Europe had effects which were deeply felt in +America. This influence of Europe upon America, however, became less +and less as time passed on; and the development of the American nation +has made its history constantly more independent. It is, therefore, +only with some of the most important and earliest of these European +occurrences and conditions that this book is occupied. The general +relation of America to Europe is a subject that would require a vastly +fuller treatment, and it is a subject which doubtless will increasingly +receive the attention of scholars as our appreciation of the proper +perspective of history becomes more clear. In so wide a field as that +of this volume, it has been necessary to use secondary materials for +many statements; their aid is acknowledged in the footnotes and in the +bibliography. Other parts, so far as space limits allowed, I have been +able to work out from original sources. For much valuable information, +suggestion, and advice also, I am indebted to friends and fellow- +workers, and here gladly make acknowledgment for such assistance. + +EDWARD POTTS CHEYNEY. + + + + +EUROPEAN BACKGROUND OF AMERICAN HISTORY + +CHAPTER I THE EAST AND THE WEST + +(1200-1500) + +To set forth the conditions in Europe which favored the work of +discovering America and of exploring, colonizing, and establishing +human institutions there, is the subject and task of this book. Its +period extends from the beginning of those marked commercial, +political, and intellectual changes of the fifteenth century which +initiated a great series of geographical discoveries, to the close, in +the later years of the seventeenth century, of the religious wars and +persecutions which did so much to make that century an age of +emigration from Europe. During those three hundred years few events in +European history failed to exercise some influence upon the fortunes of +America. The relations of the Old World to the New were then +constructive and fundamental to a degree not true of earlier or of +later times. Before the fifteenth century events were only distantly +preparing the way; after the seventeenth the centre of gravity of +American history was transferred to America itself. + +The crowding events, the prominent men, the creative thoughts, and the +rapidly changing institutions which fill the history of western Europe +during these three centuries cannot all be described in this single +volume. It merely attempts to point out the leading motives for +exploration and colonization, to show what was the equipment for +discovery, and to describe the most significant of those political +institutions of Europe which exercised an influence on forms of +government in the colonies, thus sketching the main outlines of the +European background of American history. Many political, economic, +intellectual, and personal factors combined to make the opening of our +modern era an age of geographical discovery. Yet among these many +causes there was one which was so influential and persistent that it +deserves to be singled out as the predominant incentive to exploration +for almost two hundred years. This enduring motive was the desire to +find new routes, from Europe to the far East. + +Columbus sailed on his great voyage in 1492, "his object being to reach +the Indies." [Footnote: Columbus's Journal, October 3, 21, 23, 24, etc +Cf. Bourne, Spain in America, chap, 11] When he discovered the first +land beyond the Atlantic, he came to the immediate conclusion that he +had reached the coast of Asia, and identified first Cuba and then Hayti +with Japan. A week after his first sight of land he Reports, "It is +certain that this is the main-land and that I am in front of Zayton and +Guinsay" [Footnote: Columbus's Journal, November 1] Even on his third +voyage, in 1498, he is still of the opinion that South America is the +main-land of Asia. [Footnote: Columbus's will] It was reported all +through Europe that the Genoese captain had "discovered the coast of +the Indies," and "found that way never before known to the East." +[Footnote: Ramusio, Raccolta de Navigazioni, I, 414] The name West +Indies still remains as a testimony to the belief of the early +explorers that they had found the Indies by sailing westward. + +When John Cabot, in 1496, obtained permission from Henry VII. to equip +an expedition for westward exploration, he hoofed to reach "the island +of Cipango" (Japan) and the lands from which Oriental caravans brought +their goods to Alexandria. [Footnote: Letter of Soncino, 1497, in Hart, +Contemporaries, I., 70.] It is true that he landed on the barren shore +of Labrador, and that what he descried from his vessel as he sailed +southward was only the wooded coast of North America; but it was +reported, and for a while believed, that the king of England had in +this manner "acquired a part of Asia without drawing his sword." +[Footnote: Ibid. Cf. Bourne. Spain in America, chap v.] In 1501 Caspar +Cortereal, in the service of the king of Portugal, pressed farther into +the ice-bound arctic waters on the same quest, and with his companions +became the first in the dreary list of victims sacrificed to the long +search for a northwest passage. [Footnote: Harrisse, Les Cortereal] +When the second generation of explorers learned that the land that had +been discovered beyond the sea was not Asia, their first feeling was +not exultation that a new world had been discovered, but chagrin that a +great barrier, stretching far to the north and the south, should thus +interpose itself between Europe and the eastern goal on which their +eyes were fixed. Every navigator who sailed along the coast of North or +South America looked eagerly for some strait by which he might make his +way through, and thus complete the journey to the Spice Islands, to +China, Japan, India, and the other lands of the ancient East. +[Footnote: Bourne, Spain in America, chap viii.] Verrazzano, in 1521, +and Jacques Cartier, in 1534, 1535, and 1541, both in the service of +the king of France, and Gomez, in the Spanish service, in 1521, were +engaged in seeking this elusive passage. [Footnote: Pigeonneau, +Histoire du Commerce de la France, II, 142-148.] For more than a +hundred years the French traders and explorers along the St. Lawrence +and the Great Lakes were led farther and farther into the wilderness by +hopes of finding some western outlet which would make it possible for +them to reach Cathay and India. Englishmen, with greater persistence +than Spaniards, Portuguese, or French, pursued the search for this +northwestern route to India. To find such a passage became a dream and +a constantly renewed effort of the navigators and merchants of the days +of Queen Elizabeth; the search for it continued into the next century, +even after colonies had been established in America itself; and a +continuance of the quest was constantly impressed by the government and +by popular opinion upon the merchants of the Hudson Bay Company, till +the eighteenth century. + +A tradition grew up that there was a passage through the continent +somewhere near the fortieth parallel. It was in the search for this +passage that Hudson was engaged, when, in the service of the Dutch +government, in 1609, he made the famous voyage in the Half Moon and hit +on the Hudson River; just as in his first voyage he had tried to reach +the Indies by crossing the North Pole, and in his second by following a +northeast route. [Footnote: Asher, Henry Hudson, the Navigator, cxcii.- +cxcvi.] Much of the exploration of the coast of South America was made +with the same purpose. To reach India was the deliberate object of +Magellan when, in 1519 and 1520, he skirted the coast of that continent +and made his way through the southern straits. The same objective point +was intended in the "Molucca Voyage" of 1526-1530, under the command of +Sebastian Cabot, [Footnote: Beazley, John and Sebastian Cabot, 152.] as +well as in other South American voyages of Spanish explorers. Thus the +search for a new route to the East lay at the back of many of those +voyages of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which gradually made +America familiar to Europe. + +The same object was sought in explorations to the eastward. The +earliest voyages of the Portuguese along the coast of Africa, it is +true, had other motives; but the desire to reach India grew upon the +navigators and the sovereigns of that nation, and from the accession of +John II., in 1481, every nerve was strained to find a route to the far +East. Within one twelvemonth, in the years 1486 and 1487, three +expeditions left the coast of Portugal seeking access to the East. The +first of these, under Bartholomew Diaz, discovered the Cape of Good +Hope; the second was an embassy of Pedro de Cavailham and Affonso de +Paiva through the eastern Mediterranean to seek Prester John, a search +which carried one of them to the west coast of India, the other to the +east coast of Africa; the third was an exploring expedition to the +northeast, which reached, for the first time, the islands of Nova +Zembla. [Footnote: Beazley, Henry the Navigator.] The Portuguese +ambition was finally crowned with success in the exploit of Vasco da +Gama in reaching the coast of India by way of the southern point of +Africa, in 1498; the Spanish expedition under Magellan reached the same +lands by the westward route twenty years afterwards. Even after these +successes, efforts continued to be made to reach China and the Indies +by a northeast passage around the northern coast of Europe. Successive +expeditions of Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch were sent out +only to meet invariable failure in those icy seas, until the terrible +hardships the explorers endured gradually brought conviction of the +impracticability of this, as of the northwestern, route. What was the +origin of this eagerness to reach the Indies? Why did Portuguese, +Spaniards, English, French, and Dutch vie with one another in centuries +of effort not only to discover new lands, but to seek these sea-routes +to the oldest of all lands? Why were the old lines of intercourse +between the East and the West almost deserted, and a new group of +maritime nations superseding the old Mediterranean and mid-European +trading peoples? The answer to these questions will be found in certain +changes which were in progress in those lands east of the Mediterranean +Sea, which lie on the border-line between Europe and Asia. Through this +region trade between Europe and the far East had flowed from immemorial +antiquity; but in the fifteenth century its channels were obstructed +and its stream much diminished. + +Mediaeval Europe was dependent for her luxuries on Asia Minor and +Syria, Arabia and Persia, India and the Spice Islands, China and Japan. +Precious stones and fabrics, dyes and perfumes, drugs and medicaments, +woods, gums, and spices reached Europe by many devious and obscure +routes, but all from the eastward. One of the chief luxuries of the +Middle Ages was the edible spices. The monotonous diet, the coarse +food, the unskilful cookery of mediaeval Europe had all their +deficiencies covered by a charitable mantle of Oriental seasoning. +Wines and ale were constantly used spiced with various condiments. In +Sir Thopas's forest grew "notemuge to putte in ale." [Footnote: +Chaucer, Sir Thopas, line 52.] The brewster in the Vision of Piers +Plowman declares: + +"I have good ale, gossip, Glutton wilt thou essay? 'What hast thou,' +quoth he, 'any hot spices?' I have pepper and peony and a pound of +garlic, A farthing-worth of fennel seed for fasting days" [Footnote: +Text C, passus VII, lines 355, etc.] + +Froissart has the king's guests led to "the palace, where wine and +spices were set before them." [Footnote: Froissart, Chronicles, book +II, chap lxxx] The dowry of a Marseilles girl, in 1224, makes mention +of "mace, ginger, cardamoms, and galangale." [Footnote: Quoted in +Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, II, 433, n.] In the garden in the +Romaunt of the Rose, "Ther was eek wexing many a spyce, As clow- +gelofre, and licoryce, Gingere, and greyn de paradys, Canelle, and +setewale of prys, And many a spyce delitable, To eten when men ryse fro +table." [Footnote: Chaucer (Skeat's ed), lines 1367-1373.] + +When John Ball wished to draw a contrast between the lot of the lords +and the peasants, he said, "They have wines, spices, and fine bread, +when we have only rye and the refuse of the straw." [Footnote: +Froissart, Chronicles, book II, chap lxxiii.] When old Latimer was +being bound to the stake he handed nutmegs to his friends as keepsakes. +[Footnote: Froude, History of England.] + +Pepper, the most common and at the same time the most valued of these +spices, was frequently treated as a gift of honor from one sovereign to +another, or as a courteous form of payment instead of money. "Matilda +de Chaucer is in the gift of the king, and her land is worth 8 pounds, +2d, and 1 pound of pepper and 1 pound of cinnamon and 1 ounce of silk," +reads a chance record in an old English survey. [Footnote: Festa de +Nevil, p 16.] The amount of these spices demanded and consumed was +astonishing. Venetian galleys, Genoese carracks, and other vessels on +the Mediterranean brought many a cargo of them westward, and they were +sold in fairs and markets everywhere. "Pepper-sack" was a derisive and +yet not unappreciative epithet applied by German robber-barons to the +merchants whom they plundered as they passed down the Rhine. For years +the Venetians had a contract to buy from the sultan of Egypt annually +420,000 pounds of pepper. One of the first vessels to make its way to +India brought home 210,000 pounds. A fine of 200,000 pounds of pepper +was imposed upon one petty prince of India by the Portuguese in 1520. +In romances and chronicles, in cook-books, trades-lists, and customs- +tariffs, spices are mentioned with a frequency and consideration +unknown in modern times. + +Yet the location of "the isles where the spices grow" was very distant +and obscure to the men of the Middle Ages. John Cabot, in 1497, said +that he "was once at Mecca, whither the spices are brought by caravans +from distant countries, and having inquired from whence they were +brought and where they grew, the merchants answered that they did not +know, but that such merchandise was brought from distant countries by +other caravans to their home; and they further say that they are also +conveyed from other remote regions." [Footnote: Letter of Soncino, in +Hart, Contemporaries, I., 70.] Such lack of knowledge was pardonable, +considering that Marco Polo, one of the most observant of travellers, +after spending years in Asia, believed, mistakenly, that nutmegs and +cloves were produced in Java. [Footnote: Marco Polo (Yule's ed.), book +III., chap vi., 217, n.] It was only after more direct intercourse was +opened up with the East that their true place of production became +familiarly known in Europe. Nutmegs and mace, cloves and allspice were +the native products of but one little spot on the earth's surface: a +group of small islands, Banda, Amboyna, Ternate, Tidore, Pulaway, and +Prelaroon, the southernmost of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, just +under the equator, in the midst of the Malay Archipelago. Their light, +volcanic soil, kept moist by the constant damp winds and hot by the +beams of an overhead sun, furnished the natural conditions in which the +spice-trees grew. Here the handsome shrubs that-yield the nutmeg and +its covering of mace produced a continuous crop of flowers and fruit +all the year around. Cloves grew in the same islands, as clusters of +scarlet buds, hanging at the ends of the branches of trees which rise +to a greater height and grow with even a greater luxuriance than the +nutmeg-bushes. [Footnote: Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, chap. xix.] + +Pepper had scarcely a wider field of production. The forests that +clothed a stretch of the Malabar coast of India some two hundred miles +in length, and extending some miles back into the interior, were filled +with an abundant growth of pepper-vines. One of the earliest of +European travellers in India, Odoric de Pordenone, says: "The province +where pepper grows is named Malabar, and in no other part of the world +does pepper grow except in this country. The forest where it grows is +about eighteen days in length." [Footnote: Odoric de Pordenone +(D'Avezac's ed), chap. x.] John Marignolli, in 1348, also speaks of +this district as "where the world's pepper is produced." [Footnote: +Quoted in Marco Polo (Yule's ed), II., 314, n., and Sir John +Mandeville, chap, xviii.] Its habitat was, however, somewhat more +extensive, for in less abundance and of inferior quality the pepper- +vines were raised all the way south to Cape Comorin, and even in the +islands of Ceylon and Sumatra. + +Cinnamon-bark was the special product of the mountain-slopes in the +interior of Ceylon, but this also grew on the Indian coast to the +westward, [Footnote: Marco Polo (Yule's ed), book III, chaps, xiv., +xxv.] and, in the form of cassia of several varieties, was obtained in +Thibet, in the interior provinces of China, and in some of the islands +of the Malay Archipelago. Ginger was produced in many parts of the +East; in Arabia, India, and China. Odoric attributes to a certain part +of India "the best ginger that can be found in the world" [Footnote: +Odoric de Pordenone (D'Avezac's ed), chap. x.] and Marco Polo records +its production of good quality in many provinces of India and China. +[Footnote: Marco Polo (Yule's ed), book II, chap. lxxx., book III., +chaps, xxii., xxiv., xxv, xxvi.] A great number of other kinds of +spices were produced in various parts of the Orient, and consumed there +or exported to Europe. Precious stones were of almost as much interest +to the men of the Middle Ages as were spices. For personal ornament and +for the enrichment of shrines and religious vestments, all kinds of +beautiful stones exercised an attraction proportioned to the small +number and variety of articles of beauty and taste in existence. + +"No saphir ind, no rube riche of price, There lakked than, nor emeraud +so grene." [Footnote: Chaucer, Court of Love, lines 78, 79.] + +These were as much characteristic products of the East as were spices. +Diamonds, before the discovery of the American and African fields of +production, were found only in certain districts in the central part of +India, especially in the kingdom of Mutfili or Golconda. Marco Polo +tells the same story of the method of getting them there that is +reported by Sindbad the Sailor. [Footnote: Marco Polo (Yule's ed), book +III., chap, xix.; Arabian Nights.] Rubies, the next most admired stone +of the Middle Ages, were also found, to some extent, in India, but more +largely in the island of Ceylon, in farther India, and, above all, in +the districts of Kerman, Khorassan, Badakshan, and other parts of the +highlands of Persia along the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers. [Footnote: +Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels, II., App., I.] Sapphires, garnets, +topaz, amethyst, and sardonyx were found in several of the same +districts and also in the mountains and streams of the west coast of +India, from the Gulf of Cambay all the way to Ceylon. The greatest +markets in the world for these stones were the two Indian cities of +Pulicat and Calicut; the former on the southeastern, the latter on the +western shore of the great peninsula. Pearls were then, as now, +produced only in a very few places, principally in the strait between +Ceylon and the mainland of India, and in certain parts of the Persian +Gulf. In the native states in the south of India they were, however, +accumulated in enormous quantities, and scarcely a list of Eastern +articles of merchandise omits mention of them. One of the early +European expeditions brought home among its freight 400 pearls chosen +for their size and beauty, and forty pounds of an inferior sort. The +passion of the native rajahs of India for gems had made the treasury of +every petty prince a storehouse where vast numbers of precious stones +had been garnered through thousands of years of wealth and +civilization. This mass served as the booty of successive conquerors, +and from time to time portions of it came into the hands of traders, +along with stones newly obtained from natural sources. An early +chronicler, in describing the return of the Polos to Venice from the +East, tells how, from the seams of their garments, they took out the +profits of their journeys in the East, in the form of "rubies, +sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds." [Footnote: Ramusio, +Raccolta, quoted in Marco Polo (Yule's ed.), book I., chap, xxxvii.] +Drugs, perfumes, gums, dyes, and fragrant woods had much the same +attraction as spices and precious stones, and came from much the same +lands. The lofty and beautiful trees from which camphor is obtained +grew only in Sumatra, Borneo, and certain provinces of China and Japan. +Medicinal rhubarb was native to the mountainous districts of China, +whence it was brought to the cities and the coast of that country on +the backs of mules. Musk was a product of the borderlands of China and +Thibet. The sugar-cane, although it grew widely in the East, from India +and China to Syria and Asia Minor, was successfully managed so as to +produce sugar in quantities that could be exported only in certain +parts of Arabia and Persia. Bagdad was long famous for its sugar and +articles preserved in sugar. Indigo was grown and prepared for dyeing +purposes in India. [Footnote: Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels, II., +App., I.] Brazil wood grew more or less abundantly in all parts of the +peninsula of India and as far east as Siam and southern China. This +wood, from which was extracted a highly valued dye, made a particularly +strong impression on the mediaeval imagination. European travellers in +India gave accounts of its being burned there for firewood, as their +strangest tale of luxury and waste. It gave its name to a mythical +island of Bresil, in the western seas, which was the subject of much +speculation and romance. The same name was eventually applied to the +South American country that now bears it, because it produced a similar +dye-wood in large quantities. Sandal-wood and aloe-wood, which were +valuable for their beautiful surface and fragrance when used in +cabinet-work, and for their pleasant odor when burned as incense, grew +only in certain parts of India. + +Many articles of manufacture, attractive for their material, their +workmanship, or their design, came from the same Eastern lands. Glass, +of superior workmanship to anything known in Europe, came from +Damascus, Samarcand, and Kadesia, near Bagdad. Objects of fine +porcelain came from China, and finally became known by the name of that +country. A great variety of fabrics of silk and cotton, as well as +those fibres in their raw state, came from Asia to Europe. Dozens of +names of Eastern origin still remain to describe the silk, cotton, +hair, and mixed fabrics which came to Europe from China, India, +Cashmere, and the cities of Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Asia Minor. +Brocade, damask, taffeta, sendal, satin, camelot, buckram, muslin, and +many varieties of carpets, rugs, and hangings, which were woven in +various parts of those lands, have always since retained the names of +the places which early became famous for their manufacture. The metal- +work of the East was scarcely less characteristic or less highly valued +in the West, though its varieties have not left such specific names. +[Footnote: Heyd, Geschtchte des Levantehandels, II., App., 543-699.] +Europe could feed herself with unspiced food, she could clothe herself +with plain clothing, but for luxuries, adornments, refinements, whether +in food, in personal ornament, or in furnishing her palaces, her manor- +houses, her churches, or her wealthy merchants' dwellings, she must, in +the fifteenth century, still look to Asia, as she had always done. It +is true that in the later Middle Ages many articles of beauty and +ornament were produced in the more advanced Western countries; but not +spices nor drugs, nor precious stones, nor any great variety of dyes. +Oriental rugs are even yet superior to any like productions of the +West; and a vast number of other articles of Eastern origin then held, +and indeed still hold, the markets. + +In return for the goods which Europe brought from Asia a few +commodities could be shipped eastward. European woollen fabrics seem to +have been almost as much valued in certain countries of Asia as Eastern +cotton and silk goods were in Italy, France, Germany, and England. +Certain Western metals and minerals were highly valued in the East, +especially arsenic, antimony, quicksilver, tin, copper, and lead. +[Footnote: Birdwood, Hand-book to the Indian Collection (Paris +Universal Exhibition, 1878), Appendix to catalogue of the British +Colonies, pp. 1-110.] The coral of the Mediterranean was much admired +and sought after in Persia and India, and even in countries still +farther east. Nevertheless the balance of trade was permanently in +favor of the East, and quantities of gold and silver coin and bullion +were used by European merchants to buy the finer wares in Asiatic +markets. There was much general trading in Eastern marts. Numbers of +Oriental merchants, like Sindbad the Sailor and his company, "passed by +island after island and from sea to sea and from land to land; and in +every place by which we passed we sold and bought and exchanged +merchandise." The articles enumerated above were almost without +exception in demand throughout the whole East, and were bought by +merchants in one place and sold in another. Marco Polo, in describing +the Chinese city of Zayton, says: "And I assure you that for one +shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere destined for +Christendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven +of Zayton." [Footnote: Marco Polo (Yule's ed), book II., chap. lxxxii] +Even as late as 1515, Giovanni D'Empoli, writing about China, says: +"Ships carry spices thither from these parts. Every year there go +thither from Sumatra 60,000 cantars of pepper and 15,000 or 20,000 from +Cochin and Malabar--besides ginger, mace, nutmegs, incense, aloes, +velvet, European gold-wire, coral, woollens, etc." [Footnote: Quoted in +ibid, book II., 188.] Nevertheless the attraction of the West was +clearly felt in the East. Extensive as were the local purchase and sale +of articles of luxury and use by merchants throughout India, Persia, +Arabia, Central Asia, and China, yet the export of goods from those +countries to the westward was a form of trade of great importance, and +one which had its roots deep in antiquity. A story of the early days +tells how the jealous brothers of Joseph, when they were considering +what disposition to make of him, "lifted up their eyes and looked, and, +behold, a travelling company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead, with +their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down +to Egypt." [Footnote: Genesis, xxxvii. 25.] When the prophet cries, +"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with garments dyed red from +Bozrah?" he is using two of the most familiar names on the lines of +west Asiatic trade. Solomon gave proof of his wisdom and made his +kingdom great by seizing the lines of the trade-routes from Tadmor in +the desert and Damascus in the north to the upper waters of the Red Sea +on the south. The "royal road" of the Persian kings from Sousa to +Ephesus made a long detour through northern Asia Minor, which was +inexplicable to modern archaeologists until it was perceived that it +was following the line of a trade-route much more ancient than the +Persian monarchy. [Footnote: Ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia +Minor, chap. i.] The harbor of Berenice, named after the mother of +Ptolemy Philadelpnus, was built by him as a place of transit for goods +from India which were to be carried from the Red Sea to the Nile. +[Footnote: Hunter, Hist. of British India, I., 40.] Roman roads +followed ancient lines through Asia Minor and Syria, and medieval +routes in turn, in many places, passed by the remains of Roman +stations. Thus the East and the West had been drawn together by a +mutual commercial attraction from the earliest times, an attraction +based on the respective natural productions of the two continents, and +favored by the vast superiority of the East in the creation of articles +of beauty and usefulness. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ORIENTAL AND OCCIDENTAL TRADE-ROUTES (1200-1500) + + +In the fifteenth century Eastern goods regularly reached the West by +one of three general routes through Asia. Each of these had, of course, +its ramifications and divergences; they were like three river-systems, +changing their courses from time to time and occasionally running in +divided streams, but never ceasing to follow the general course marked +out for them by great physical features. The southernmost of these +three routes was distinguished by being a sea-route in all except its +very latest stages. Chinese and Japanese junks and Malaysian proas +gathered goods from the coasts of China and Japan and the islands of +the great Malay Archipelago, and bought and sold along the shores of +the China Sea till their westward voyages brought them into the straits +of Malacca and they reached the ancient city of that name. This was one +of the great trading points of the East. Few Chinese traders passed +beyond it, though the more enterprising Malays made that the centre +rather than the western limit of their commerce. Many Arabian traders +also came there from India to sell their goods and to buy the products +of the islands of the archipelago, and the goods which the Chinese +traders had brought from still farther East. + +The Indian and Arabian merchants who came to Malacca as buyers were +mostly from Calicut and other ports on the Malabar coast, and to these +home ports they brought back their purchases. To these markets of +southwestern India were also brought the products of Ceylon, of the +eastern coast, and of the shore of farther India. From port to port +along the Malabar coast passed many coasting vessels, whose northern +and western limit was usually the port of Ormuz at the entrance to the +Persian Gulf. A great highway of commerce stretched from this trading +and producing region, and from the Malabar ports directly across the +Arabian Sea to the entrance of the Red Sea. When these waters were +reached, many ports of debarkation from Mecca northward might be used. +But the prevailing north winds made navigation in the Red Sea +difficult, and most of the goods which eventually reached Europe by +this route were landed on the western coast, to be carried by caravan-- +to Kus, in Egypt, and then either by caravans or in boats down the line +of the Nile to Cairo. + +Cairo was a very great city, its population being occupied largely in +the transmission of goods. A fifteenth-century traveller counted 15,000 +boats in the Nile at one time; [Footnote: Piloti, quoted in Heyd, +Geschichte des Levantehandels, II., 43.] and another learned that there +were in all some 36,000 boats belonging in Cairo engaged in traffic up +and down the river. [Footnote: Ibn Batuta, quoted, ibid.] From Cairo a +great part of these goods were taken for sale to Alexandria, which was +in many ways as much a European as an African city. Thus a regular +route stretched along the southern coasts of Asia, allowing goods +produced in all lands of the Orient to be gathered up in the course of +trade and transferred as regular articles of commerce to the +southeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. + +A second route lay in latitudes to the north of that just described. +From the ports on the west coast of India a considerable proportion of +the goods destined ultimately for Europe made their way northward to +the Persian Gulf. A line of trading cities extending along its shores +from Ormuz near the mouth of the gulf to Bassorah at its head served as +ports of call for the vessels which carried this merchandise. Several +of these coast cities were also termini of caravan routes entering them +from the eastward, forming a net-work which united the various +provinces of Persia and reached through the passes of Afghanistan into +northern India. From the head of the Persian Gulf one branch of this +route went up the line of the Tigris to Bagdad. From this point goods +were taken by caravan through Kurdistan to Tabriz, the great northern +capital of Persia, and thence westward either to the Black Sea or to +Layas on the Mediterranean. Another branch was followed by the trains +of camels which made their way from Bassorah along the tracks through +the desert which spread like a fan to the westward, till they reached +the Syrian cities of Aleppo, Antioch, and Damascus. They finally +reached the Mediterranean coast at Laodicea, Tripoli, Beirut, or Jaffa, +while some goods were carried even as far south as Alexandria. + +Far to the north of this complex of lines of trade lay a third route +between the far East and the West, extending from the inland provinces +of China westward across the great desert of Obi, south of the +Celestial mountains to Lake Lop; then passing through a series of +ancient cities, Khotan, Yarkand, Kashgar, Samarcand, and Bokhara, till +it finally reached the region of the Caspian Sea. This main northern +route was joined by others which crossed the passes of the Himalayas +and the Hindoo-Kush, and brought into a united stream the products of +India and China.[Footnote: Hunter, Hist. of British India, I., 31.] A +journey of eighty to a hundred days over desert, mountain, and steppes +lay by this route between the Chinese wall and the Caspian. From still +farther north in China a parallel road to this passed to the north of +the desert and the mountains, and by way of Lake Balkash, to the same +ancient and populous land lying to the east of the Caspian Sea. Here +the caravan routes again divided. Some led to the southwestward, where +they united with the more central routes described above and eventually +reached the Black Sea and the Mediterranean through Asia Minor and +Syria. Others passed by land around the northern coast of the Caspian, +or crossed it, reaching a further stage at Astrakhan. From Astrakhan +the way led on by the Volga and Don rivers, till its terminus was at +last reached on the Black Sea at Tana near the mouth of the Don, or at +Kaffa in the Crimea. [Footnote: Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels, +II., 68-254.] + +Along these devious and dangerous routes, by junks, by strange Oriental +craft, by river-boats, by caravans of camels, trains of mules, in +wagons, on horses, or on human shoulders, the products of the East were +brought within reach of the merchants of the West. These routes were +insecure, the transportation over them difficult and expensive. They +led over mountains and deserts, through alternate snow and heat. Mongol +conquerors destroyed, from time to time, the cities which lay along the +lines of trade, and ungoverned wild tribes plundered the merchants who +passed through the regions through which they wandered. More regularly +constituted powers laid heavy contributions on merchandise, increasing +many-fold the price at which it must ultimately be sold. The routes by +sea had many of the same dangers, along with others peculiar to +themselves. The storms of the Indian Ocean and its adjacent waters were +destructive to vast numbers of the frail vessels of the East; piracy +vied with storms in its destructiveness; and port dues were still +higher than those of inland marts. + +With all these impediments, Eastern products, nevertheless, arrived at +the Mediterranean in considerable quantities. The demands of the +wealthy classes of Europe and the enterprise of European and Asiatic +merchants were vigorous enough to bring about a large and even an +increasing trade; and the three routes along which the products of the +East were brought to those who were able to pay for them were never, +during the Middle Ages, entirely closed. They found their western +termini in a long line of Levantine cities extending along the shores +of the Black Sea and of the eastern Mediterranean from Tana in the +north to Alexandria in the south. In these cities the spices, drugs, +dyes, perfumes, precious stones, silks, rugs, metal goods, and other +fabrics and materials produced in far Eastern lands were always +obtainable by European merchants. + +The merchants who bought these goods in the market-places of the Levant +for the purpose of distributing them throughout Europe were for the +most part Italians from Pisa, Venice, or Genoa; Spaniards from +Barcelona and Valencia; or Provencals from Narbonne, Marseilles, and +Montpellier. [Footnote: Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, II., chap. +vi.] They were not merely travelling buyers and sellers, but in many +cases were permanent residents of the eastern Mediterranean lands. In +the first half of the fifteenth century there were settlements of such +merchants in Alexandria in Egypt; in Acre, Beirut, Tripoli, and +Laodicea on the Syrian coast; at Constantinople, and in a group of +cities skirting the Black Sea. Even in the more inland cities of Syria, +such as Damascus, Aleppo, and Antioch, Italians were established. +[Footnote: Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels, II., 67.] The position +of European merchants varied in the different cities on this trading +border between the East and the West, from that of mere foreign +traders, living on bare sufferance in the midst of a hostile community, +to that of citizens occupying what was practically an outlying Venetian +or Genoese or Pisan colony. + +In the greater number of cases the Italian and other European merchants +had quarters, or fondachi, granted to them in the Eastern cities by the +Saracen emirs of Egypt and Syria, or by the Greek emperor of Asia +Minor, Constantinople, and Trebizond. These fondachi were buildings, or +groups of dwellings and warehouses, often including a market-place, +offices, and church, where the merchants of some Italian or Provencal +city carried on their business affairs according to their own rules, +under permission granted to them by the local ruler. A Genoese or +Venetian fondaco was usually governed by a consul or bailiff, appointed +by the home government, or elected among themselves with the approval +of the senate and doge at home. Two or more advisers were usually +provided by the home government to act with the consul in negotiations +with the local government. In more important matters embassies were +sent directly from the doge to the ruler on whose toleration or self- +interest the whole settlement was dependent. + +For whole centuries Italians had made up an appreciable part of the +population of many cities of the Levant; the galleys of Venice, Genoa, +and Pisa lay at their wharves discharging produce of the West and +loading the products of the East; a large part of the income of the +local potentates, or governors, was made up of export and import +duties, harbor charges, and other impositions paid by the Western +merchants. The prosperity of these Greek and Saracen seaboard cities +was as largely dependent on this trade as was that of the merchants who +came there for its sake. [Footnote: Heyd, Geschichte des +Levantehandels, I., 165, 168, 316, 363, 414, 443. etc., II., 430, 435, +etc.] + +We have seen how the merchandise of the far East flowed to the Eastern +cities of the Mediterranean, and how it was gathered there into the +hands of European merchants. It remains to follow the routes by which +it was redistributed throughout Europe. Both Genoa and Venice had +possessions in the Greek Archipelago which formed stepping-stones +between the home cities and their fondachi in the cities of the Levant. +Trading from port to port along these lines of connection, or sometimes +carrying cargoes unbroken from their most distant points of trade, the +galleys of the Italian, French, or Spanish traders brought Eastern +goods along with the products of the Mediterranean islands and shores +to the home cities. These cities then became new distributing-points of +Eastern and Mediterranean goods as well as of their own home products. + +Venice may fairly be taken as a type of the cities which subsisted on +this trade. Her merchants were the most numerous, widely spread, and +enterprising; her trade the most firmly organized, her hold on the East +the strongest. To her market-places and warehouses a vast quantity of +goods was constantly brought for home consumption and re-export. From +Venice, yearly fleets of galleys went out destined to various points +and carrying various cargoes. One of these fleets, after calling at +successive ports in Illyria, Italy, Sicily, Spain, and Portugal, and +after detaching some galleys for Southampton, Sandwich, or London, in +England, reached, as its ultimate destination, Bruges, in Flanders. +[Footnote: Brown, Cal. of State Pap., Venetian.] + +Other goods were taken by Venetian merchants through Italy and across +the mountains by land. Most of the re-export from Venice by land was +done by foreigners. Over the Alps came German merchants from Nuremberg, +Augsburg, Ulm, Regensburg, Constance, and other cities of the valleys +of the Danube and the Rhine. They had a large building in Venice set +apart for their use by the senate, the "Fondaco dei Tedeschi," much +like those settlements which the Venetians themselves possessed in the +cities of the Levant. [Footnote: Simonsfeld, Der Fondaco dei Tedeschi +in Venedig, II,] The goods which they purchased in Venice they carried +in turn all through Germany, to the fairs of France, and to the cities +of the Netherlands. Merchants of the Hanseatic League bought these +goods at Bruges or Antwerp or in the south German cities, and carried +them, along with their own northern products, to England, to the +countries on the Baltic, and even into Poland and Russia, meeting at +Kiev a more direct branch of the Eastern trade which proceeded from +Astrakhan and Tana northward up the Volga and the Don. + +Thus the luxuries of the East were distributed through Europe. With +occasional interruptions, frequent changes in detail, and constant +difficulties, the same general routes and methods of transfer and +exchange had been followed for centuries. It was the oldest, the most +extensive, and the most lucrative trade known to Europe. It stretched +over the whole known world, its lines converging from the eastward and +southward to the cities of Syria, Asia Minor, and the Black Sea coast, +and diverging thence to the westward and northward throughout Europe. + +With the close of the Middle Ages this ancient and well-established +trade showed evident signs of disorganization and decline. The Levant +was suffering from changes which interrupted its commerce and which +made the old trade-routes that passed through it almost impracticable. +The principal cause for this process of decay and failure was the rise +of the Ottoman Turks as a conquering power. About 1300 a petty group of +Turks, in the heart of Asia Minor, under a chieftain named Osman, began +a career of extension of their dominions by conquering the other +provinces of Turkish or Greek origin and allegiance in their vicinity. +[Footnote: Zinkeisen, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches in Europa, I., +65-132.] Little by little the Osmanli pushed their borders out in every +direction till they reached the Mediterranean, the Sea of Marmora, and +the Black Sea. Within a century and a half, by the close of the reign +of Murad II., in 1451, they had built vessels on the Aegean, plundered +the Greek islands and laid them under tribute, crossed the Dardanelles +and made conquests far up in the Balkan Peninsula, pressed close upon +the Christian cities along the south coast of the Black Sea, and +reduced the possessions of the Greek Empire to a narrow strip of land +around Constantinople. [Footnote: Ibid., 184-708.] The Turkish Empire +was admirably organized for military and financial purposes and +governed by a series of able sultans. + +Thus a great power arose on the border-line between the Orient and the +Occident, of which the merchant states of Italy and the West evidently +had to take account. But its existence did not at first appear to be +necessarily destructive to their interests. In many cases comparatively +favorable commercial treaties were made with the Turkish sultans, and +the facile Italians modified their trading to meet the new conditions. +[Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels, II., 259, 260, 267, 275, 284, +etc.] Nevertheless, with the Turks there could be no such close +connection as that which had existed between the Western traders and +the old-established states in the East, under which they enjoyed +practical independence so long as they paid the money. The Turks were +not only Mohammedans, they were barbarians; they added to the Moslem +contempt for the Christian the warrior's contempt for the mere +merchant. They were without appreciation for culture or even for +refined luxury. + +The conquests of the Turks proceeded steadily to their completion. In +1452 Sultan Mohammed II. built the fort of Rumili Hissari, on the +European side of the Bosporus, and gave the commander orders to lay +every trading-vessel that passed the straits under tribute. The next +year saw the final siege, the heroic resistance, and the fall of +Constantinople. + +Among its defenders were Venetians, Genoese, Florentines, and Italian +colonists from various settlements, summoned to the help of their +coreligionists against the Mohammedans. On its capture all their goods +were plundered, their leaders beheaded, those of rank held for ransom, +and the common men slaughtered or sold as slaves. [Footnote: Pears, The +Destruction of the Greek Empire.] The neighboring colony of Pera was +left to the Genoese, but humbled to the rank of a Turkish village with +a sadly restricted trade. Trade was allowed to and from Constantinople, +but all the old privileges were abrogated, and the city was now the +capital of a semi-barbarous ruler and race, who placed but small value +on things brought by trade and continually engaged in war. + +Especially destructive to trade were the wars between the Turks and the +Italian colonists of the eastern Mediterranean. Such wars were +inevitable. In the progress of their career of conquest the Ottoman +fleets early attacked the island possessions of Venice and Genoa in the +Aegean and their independent or semi-independent settlements on the +shores of the Black Sea. Efforts for the defence of these involved war +between the home governments and the rising Eastern power. From 1463 to +1479 war between the Turkish Empire and Venice raged in Syria and Asia +Minor, in the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, on the main-land of +Greece, and northward to Albania. The Italian republic lost some of its +best territories, including the Greek islands, and only obtained +permission to take its vessels through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus +on payment of a heavy annual sum. [Footnote: Heyd, Geschichte des +Levantehandels, II., 325-332.] The few remaining island possessions of +Genoa were also lost--Lesbos in 1462, Chios in 1466. A brave defence of +their island homes was made by the Italians, but one after another +these succumbed to the terrible attacks of the Turks. [Footnote: Bury, +in Cambridge Modern History, I., 75-81.] + +In the mean time the possessions still farther east had the same fate. +Immediately after the downfall of Constantinople the Turks placed a +fleet upon the Black Sea and attacked the colonies on the north coast +at Kaffa, Soldaia, and Tana, and on the south at Trebizond and other +ports. One after another these cities were placed under tribute; +repeated battles destroyed their possessions; their population was +enslaved and their property plundered. In 1461 Trebizond was captured; +in 1500 Kaffa was finally conquered and the whole Christian population, +after many sufferings, carried off to live as a subject race in a +suburb of Constantinople. In 1499 and 1500 Venice lost almost all the +rest of her possessions. + +Some of the cities of the West which had never had landed possessions +in the East fared better under the Ottoman than did Venice and Genoa. +Florentines, Ragusans, and men of Ancona, for some decades, took their +galleys from port to port of the Turkish coasts and islands, or passed +as individual traders back along the trade-routes seeking goods for +export. Nevertheless, the flow of Eastern goods along these routes was +becoming less and less; the internal wars of rival Tartar rulers and +those between Tartars and Turks threw the northern routes and parts of +the central route into even more than their usual confusion; and the +lessened demands at the ports of the Black Sea and Asia Minor +discouraged the bringing of goods from the Eastern sources of supply. + +The Turkish thirst for conquest brought under the control of that race, +in the half-century between 1450 and 1500, half the western termini of +the trade-routes with the East. It crushed out all semblance of +independence in the settlements of the European merchants in Asia Minor +and on the Black Sea, and left to them a bare foothold for purposes of +trade under the most burdensome restrictions. These conquests were very +destructive to life and property. Mercantile firms failed, old families +died out, the mother-states were exhausted, and the flow of merchandise +was dried up. The system of trade which had been in existence in these +regions for centuries was quite destroyed by this violence. + +The central and southern routes for a time remained open; indeed, the +blocking of the more northerly outlets sent a greater proportion of the +trade in Eastern products through Syria and through the Red Sea ports. +The markets at Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut, and Alexandria were better +filled than ever with the products of the East. Even the Genoese, who +had so completely lost their prosperity, still had a fondaco in +Alexandria in 1483; while the Venetians, notwithstanding their losses +in the northeastern Mediterranean and their bitter struggles with the +Turks, continued to make closer and closer trade arrangements with the +Saracen emirs of the Syrian cities and the Mameluke sultans of Egypt. +Under heavy financial burdens and amid constant disputes they still +kept up an active trade. Ten or fifteen galleys came every year from +Italy, France, and Spain to Alexandria, which in the later years of the +fifteenth century was by far the greatest market for spices in the +world. Even Florence, in the later years of the fifteenth century, +opened up a trade with Egypt and Syria. [Footnote: Heyd, Geschichte des +Levantehandels, II., 427-494.] + +The southeastern Mediterranean was now destined to be swept by the same +storm as the other parts of the Levant. In the early years of the +sixteenth century the Ottoman army invaded Syria and Egypt. In 1516 the +sultan captured Damascus; in 1517 he entered Cairo as a conqueror. +Syria and Egypt became a part of the Turkish Empire, as Asia Minor, the +Balkan Peninsula, and the coasts of the Black Sea had already done. +Treaties, it is true, were even yet formed by which Venice, at the +price of humiliating conditions, obtained permission from the Ottoman +government to continue a heavily burdened trade in the blighted cities +of Egypt and Syria, as she was already doing in Constantinople. But the +process by which Turkish conquest was attained, and the whole spirit +and policy of that power, were adverse to trade between the East and +West. + +The old trade-routes between Asia and Europe were effectually and +permanently blocked by the Turkish conquests. Not only routes of trade, +but methods of exchange, forms of transportation, and, in fact, the +whole system by which Eastern goods had been brought to Europe for +centuries, were interrupted, undermined, and made almost impracticable. +During this period the city republics of Italy, which had been the +chief European intermediaries of this trade, were losing their +prosperity, their wealth, their enterprise, and their vigor. This was +due, as a matter of fact, to a variety of causes, internal and +external, political and economic; but the sufferings in the wars with +the Turks and the adverse conditions of the Levant trade on which their +prosperity primarily rested were far the most important causes of their +decline. + +Thus the demand of European markets for Eastern luxuries could no +longer be met satisfactorily by the old methods; yet that demand was no +less than it had been, and the characteristic products of the East were +still sought for in all the market-places of Europe. Indeed, the demand +was increasing. As Europe in the fifteenth century became more wealthy +and more familiar with the products of the whole world, as the nobles +learned to demand more luxuries, and a wealthy merchant class grew up +which was able to gratify the same tastes as the nobles, the demand of +the West upon the East became more insistent than ever. Therefore, the +men, the nation, the government that could find a new way to the East +might claim a trade of indefinite extent and extreme profit. + +This is the explanation of that eager search for new routes to the +Indies which lay at the back of so many voyages of discovery of the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Southward along the coast of Africa, +in the hope that that continent could be rounded to the southeast; +northward along the coast of Europe in search of a northeast passage; +westward relying on the sphericity of the earth and hoping that the +distance from the west coast of Europe to the east coast of Asia would +prove not to be interminable; after America was reached, again +northward and southward to round and pass beyond that barrier, and thus +reach Asia--such was the progress of geographical exploration for a +century and a half, during which men gradually became familiar with a +great part of the earth's surface. A study of the history of trade- +routes corroborates the fact disclosed by many other lines of study-- +that the discovery of America was no isolated phenomenon; it was simply +one step in the development of the world's history. Changes in the +eastern Mediterranean led men to turn their eyes in other directions +looking for other sea routes to the East. When they had done so, along +with much else that was new, America was disclosed to their vision. + +To follow out all the remote effects of the upheaval in western Asia +and eastern Europe would lead too far afield: but the diversion of +commercial interest was only a part: the restless energies of the Latin +races of southern Europe turned into a new channel; search for trade +led to discovery, discovery to exploration, exploration to permanent +settlement; and settlement to the creation of a new centre of +commercial and political interest, and eventually to the rise of a new +nation. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ITALIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO EXPLORATION + +(1200-1500) + + +Although in the fifteenth century Italy lost the commercial leadership +which she had so long held, she did not cease to be the teacher of the +other countries of Europe. In those arts which lay at the base of +exploration, as in so many other fields, Italy was far in advance of +all other Western countries. Through the Middle Ages she preserved much +of the heritage of ancient skill and learning; by her Renaissance +studies she recovered much that had been temporarily lost; and in +geographical science she early made progress of her own. "The greatness +of the Germans, the courtesy of the French, the valor of the English, +and the wisdom of the Italians" is the tribute paid by a fifteenth- +century Portuguese chronicler to the nations of his time, and this +"wisdom of the Italians" he especially connects with exploration and +navigation.[Footnote: Azurara, "Chronicle of Guinea," chap. ii.] + +As a nation Italy played but a slight part in the discoveries of the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; but through her scattered sons she +used her fine intelligence to initiate and guide much of the work that +was completed by the ruder but more efficient and vigorous nations of +the Atlantic seaboard. Educated men from Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and +Florence emigrated to other lands, carrying with them science, skill, +and ingenuity unknown except in the advanced and enterprising Italian +city republics and principalities. Italian mathematicians made the +calculations on which all navigation was based; Italian cartographers +drew maps and charts; Italian ship-builders designed and built the best +vessels of the time; Italian captains commanded them, and very often +Italian sailors made up their crews; while at least in the earlier +period Italian bankers advanced the funds with which the expeditions +were equipped and sent out. + +Columbus, Cabot, Verrazzano, and Vespucci were simply the most famous +of the Italians who during this period made discoveries while in the +service of other governments. The Venetian Cadamosto led repeated and +successful expeditions for Prince Henry of Portugal; Perestrello, the +discoverer of Porto Santo, in the Madeiras, and Antonio de Noli, the +discoverer of the Cape Verd Islands, were both Italians. [Footnote: +Ruge, "Der Zeitalter der Entdeckungen," 217.] This was no new condition +of affairs. In the time of Edward II. and Edward III., in the service +of England, we find the names of Genoese such as Pesagno and Uso de +Mare. Another Genoese, Emanuel Pesagno, was appointed as the first +hereditary admiral of the fleet of Portugal, and by the terms of his +engagement was required to keep the Portuguese navy provided with +twenty Genoese captains of good experience in navigation. Of the sixty +men who made up the complement of Magellan's fleet of 1519, in the +service of Spain, twenty-three were Italians, mostly Genoese. +[Footnote: Navarrete, quoted in Ruge, Zeitalter, 466, n.] At the same +time all Spanish taxes were administered by Genoese bankers, and they +or other Italians had a monopoly of all loanable capital. [Footnote: +Hume, Spain, Its Greatness and Decay, 87] + +Long before the great period of discoveries Italians contributed to the +increase of geographical knowledge by travel and narratives of travel +over the world as it was already known, but only known vaguely and by +dim report. Down to the middle of the thirteenth century the total +knowledge of the lands and waters of the globe possessed by the +educated men of Europe was not appreciably greater than it had been a +thousand years earlier. The disintegration of the old Roman world, the +more stationary habits of life, and the narrower interests of men +during the early Middle Ages were unfavorable to travel. + +The later Middle Ages were not lacking in keen intellect, in large +knowledge, in powers of systematization and elaboration of what has +already been acquired; but they had neither the material equipment nor +the mental temperament to carry the boundaries of knowledge further. +What was known of the world to Ptolemy in the second century made up +the sum of knowledge possessed by the geographers of all the following +centuries to the thirteenth. Indeed, the mediaeval tendency to +establish symmetrical measurements, to adopt fanciful explanations, and +to find analogies in all things, obscured earlier knowledge and made +geographers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries less correct in +their knowledge of the world than were those of the second or the +third. [Footnote: Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography.] + +The discoveries, conquests, and settlements of the Northmen in the +north of Europe and the northern Atlantic were so detached from the +knowledge of the south and came to a pause so early in time that +notwithstanding their potential value they contributed practically +nothing to the general geographical knowledge of Europe. Nor did +Christian, Jewish, or Arabic accounts of Eastern lands written by +travellers of the eleventh, twelfth, and early thirteenth centuries +become widely known or influential. [Footnote: Ibid., II., chaps, i.- +iv.] Even the knowledge brought home by the Crusaders was of a +restricted territory, most of it already comparatively familiar; and +therefore they added little to the common stock. + +About the middle of the thirteenth century, however, began a series of +journeys which were more fully recorded in narratives more widely +circulated and in a more receptive period. Three incentives habitually +carry men into distant and unknown lands--missionary zeal, desire for +trade, and curiosity. Actuated by one or other of these influences, an +increasing number of Europeans visited lands far beyond the eastern +terminations of the trade-routes, and some of them brought back reports +of which the influence was wide and lasting. + +Among the earliest and most observant were a succession of Franciscan +friars, sent after 1245 on missionary journeys to the court of the +ruler of the great Tartar Empire, which was then so rapidly +overspreading Asia and eastern Europe. The first of these was John de +Piano Carpini, a native of Naples, who belonged to a Franciscan house +near Perugia. He went through Bohemia, Poland, southern Russia, and the +vast steppes of Turkestan, and found the Khan at Karakorum, in +Mongolia. He was two years on the journey, and after his return wrote +an exact and interesting account of his observations and experiences. +[Footnote: Travels of John de Piano Carpini (D'Avezac's ed.).] + +A few years afterwards William de Rubruquis--a Fleming in this case, +not an Italian--was sent to visit the Mongol emperor by Louis IX. when +he was in the East. He followed a more southerly route than Carpini, +skirting the northern shores of the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Sea +of Aral, and then passing northward to Karakorum. Returning he crossed +the Caucasus and passed through Persia and the lands of the Turks, +finally reaching the Mediterranean through Syria. The account which he +wrote of his adventures was much fuller than that of Piano Carpini, and +gives descriptions of China as well as of the central Asiatic lands. +[Footnote: Travels of William de Rubruquis (D'Avezac's ed).] + +Just at the beginning of the next century two other travellers, John de +Monte Corvino [Footnote: Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, II, chap +v.] and Odoric de Pordenone, [Foornote: Travels of Odoric de Pordenone +(D'Avezac's ed)] both Italians, made journeys through Persia, India, +southern Asia, and China, and later wrote accounts of these more +southern lands quite as full as were those already mentioned concerning +the northern parts of the great eastern continent. The most famous of +all mediaeval travellers in the East were the Venetian merchants Nicolo +and Matteo Polo and their nephew Marco. These enterprising traders, +leaving their warehouses in Soldaia on the Crimea, in two successive +journeys made their way along the northern and central trade-routes to +Pekin, in northern China, or Cathay, which had become the capital of +the Great Khan. For almost twenty years the Polos were attached to the +court of Kublai Khan, the nephew, Marco, rising higher and higher in +the graces of that ruler. + +Marco Polo was one of the well-known type of Italian adventurers who +appeared at foreign courts, and, with the versatility of their race, +made themselves useful, and indeed indispensable, to their masters. He +learned the languages of the East, and went upon missions for the Great +Khan to all parts of his vast empire. When, in 1292, the Polos obtained +permission to return home they followed the longest and most important +of the three main trade-routes which have been described. They sailed +from Zaiton, a seaport of China, and passing along the shores of +Tonquin, Java, and farther India, made their way from port to port, +through the Bay of Bengal to Ceylon, then to the Malabar coast of +India, along which they passed to Cambay, and thence through the Red +Sea to Cairo, and so to Venice. Their journey homeward from China, with +its long detentions in the East Indies, took almost three years. + +All the world knows of Marco Polo's subsequent experiences in Venice, +his capture and imprisonment in Genoa, the stories of his travels with +which he whiled away the weary days of his captivity, and the gathering +of these into a book which spread widely through Europe within the next +few years and has been eagerly read ever since. [Footnote: Marco Polo +(Yule's ed,), Introduction.] + +Neither the travels of Marco Polo nor those of his predecessors or +immediate successors disclosed any lands the existence of which was not +before known to Europeans; but they gave fuller knowledge of many +countries and nations of which the names only were known; and they gave +this knowledge with astonishing freshness, minuteness, and accuracy. +The writers of these books travelled over many thousands of miles, and +they described, in the main, what they saw, although, of course, they +repeated, with more or less of exaggeration, much which they only knew +from conversation or from hearsay. Besides the written stories of such +experiences, other Europeans who accompanied these travellers, or who +made independent journeys to various parts of Asia, spread knowledge of +the same things. The author of a later popular volume of travels, +passing under the name of Sir John Mandeville, managed, by making use +of a slight acquaintance with Asia, of a fuller knowledge of the +writings of other travellers, and, most of all, of the resources of a +fertile imagination, to weave a tissue of mendacious description which +really lessened knowledge. [Footnote: Travels of Sir John Mandeville +(ed. of 1900).] + +Nevertheless, as a result of these travellers' reports, the traditions +of earlier times and the knowledge of the nearer East possessed by +traders were supplemented and popularized. The journeys of the +travellers of the later thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries were a +veritable revelation to Europe of the condition of Tartary, Persia, +India, China, and many intervening lands. Especially strong was the +impression made by the reports about China and Japan. The land of the +Seres, lying on the border of the eastern ocean, had indeed been known +to the ancients, and mentioned by tradition as the source from which +came certain well-known products; but under the name of Cathay, which +Marco Polo and his contemporaries gave to it, it attained a new and +strong hold on men's imaginations. Its myriad population, its hundreds +of cities, its vast wealth, its advanced civilization, its rivers, +bridges, and ships, its manufactures and active trade, the fact that it +was the easternmost country of Asia, washed by the waters of the +external ocean--all made Cathay a land of intense interest to the +rising curiosity of thirteenth-century Europe. [Footnote: Pigeonneau, +"Histoire du Commerce de la France," II, 12, etc.] Similarly the great +island of Cipangu, or Japan, lying a thousand miles farther to the +eastward, though never actually visited by Marco Polo, and described by +him with a vague and extravagant touch, was of equally keen interest to +his readers, as were the "twelve thousand seven hundred islands" at +which he calculates the great archipelagoes which lie in the Indian +Ocean and the Pacific. + +It was his accounts of "the province of Mangi," the cities of Zaiton +and Quinsay, "the Great Khan," "the island of Cipangu," and of their +vast wealth and active trade that took special hold on the mind of +Columbus. His copy of Marco Polo may still be seen, its margins filled +with annotations on such passages, made by the great navigator; +[Footnote: Vignaud, "Toscanelli and Columbus," 95.] and it was to these +that his mind reverted when he had discovered in the West Indies, as he +believed, the outlying parts of the Khan's dominions. [Footnote: +"Columbus's Journal," October 21, 23, 24, 26, 30, November 1, etc.] To +the westward also ancient knowledge was reacquired and made clearer. +The "Fortunate Isles" were rediscovered and identified as the Canaries +by the Italian Lancelot Malocello in 1270 [Footnote: Beazley, Hakluyt +Soc, "Publications," 1899, lxi, lxxviii.], then forgotten and +rediscovered in 1341 [Footnote: Ibid, lxxx; Peschel, "Zeitalter der +Entdecktungen," 37.] by some Portuguese ships, manned by Genoese, +Florentines, Castilians, and Portuguese. In 1291 Tedisio Doria and +Ugolino Vivaldi, Genoese citizens, equipped two galleys and sailed out +through the Straits of Gibraltar and then to the southward, with the +object of reaching the ports of India, but were never heard of again +[Footnote: Peschel, "Zeitalter der Entdeckungen," 36.]. Both the +Madeira Islands and the Azores became known as early as 1330, though +perhaps only in a shadowy way, and were visited from time to time later +in the fourteenth century, before they were regularly occupied in the +fifteenth [Footnote: Nordenskiold, "Periplus," 111-115; Major, "Prince +Henry the Navigator," chaps, v., viii., xiv.]. + +Through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, therefore, thanks for +the most part to Italian travellers, substantial gains were made in +exactitude and clearness of knowledge of the Old World. Though the +bounds of geographical knowledge were not carried much farther, and +less than one-fourth of the surface of the globe was as yet known to +Europeans, within these bounds knowledge became far more clear. + +Ignorance and superstition were still abundant; a mythical kingdom of +Prester John was believed by one geographer to exist in Africa, by +another to be situated in India, and by still another to be in China; +the Atlantic was still dreaded by some as the dark, unknown limit of +the world; ignorant men may still have believed that the sea boiled at +the equator, and that men with dogs' heads and other monsters had each +its own part of the earth; but Italians of any education, especially +those acquainted with the writings of their countrymen, must have been +quite free from such mediaeval notions. By the year 1400 scientific +information, critical habits of thought, and an interest in all forms +of knowledge had reached in Italy a high degree of development and were +fast spreading through Europe. + +The theory that the earth was round was familiar to the Greeks and +Romans, and was supported in the Middle Ages by the great authority of +Aristotle. [Footnote: Aristotle, De Ccelo, II., 14.] The only +difficulties lying in the way of an acceptance of this view through the +mediaeval period were, in the first place, the mental effort required +to conceive the earth as round when its visual appearance is flat; and, +secondly, the opposition of churchmen, who interpreted certain texts in +the Bible in such a way as to forbid the conception of the earth as a +sphere. Yet neither of these influences was strong enough to prevail +over the opinions of the majority of learned men. To them the earth was +round, as it was to Aristotle, Ptolemy, and other ancients. [Footnote: +Ruge, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen.] The ball which the Eastern emperors +carried as an emblem of the world-wide extent of their rule, and which +was borrowed from them by various mediaeval potentates, had probably +not lost its meaning. Dante, in the Divina Commedia, not only plans his +Inferno on the supposition of a spherical earth, but takes for granted +the same conception, on the part of his readers. [Footnote: Inferno, +canto 34, lines 100-108.] + +The conception of the sphericity of the earth was really a matter of +mental training. In the fifteenth century those who had gained this +knowledge were fewer than in modern times, but the class who did so +believe were no less sure of it. Astronomers, philosophers, men of +general learning, and even navigators and pilots were quite familiar +with the idea and quite in the habit of thinking of the earth as a +sphere. In all probability Columbus represented the beliefs of his +class, as well as his own, when he said, "I have always read that the +world, comprising the land and the water, is spherical, as is testified +by the investigations of Ptolemy and others, who have proved it by the +eclipses of the moon and other observations made from east to west, as +well as by the elevation of the pole from north to south." [Footnote: +Hakluyt Soc., Publications, Hist. of Columbus--Third Voyage, II., 129.] +Opposition to voyages westward was based rather on the probability of +the enormous size of the earth and on the supposed difficulty of +sailing up the slope of the sphere than it was upon any serious doubt +of its sphericity. + +The habitable world was quite a different conception. It consisted of +Europe, Asia, and Africa, these three continents forming a continuous +stretch of land lying on the surface of the spherical earth, the rest +of its surface being presumably covered with water. There was more or +less speculation about the existence of other habitable lands on the +earth than those which were known, but the interest in this possibility +was languid at best, and it was denied by learned churchmen on biblical +grounds. + +The map-makers of that period continued, like those of the earlier +Middle Ages, to base their work on mere half-mythical traditions, +unrelieved and uncorrected by the results of actual discoveries. Their +maps are still much like picture-books, filled with biblical and +literary lore, indicating but a slight attempt to incorporate exact +measurements and outlines. A development more revolutionary than the +mere gradual increase of knowledge was necessary to break the bonds of +academic tradition. [Footnote: Santarem, Essai sur L'Histoire de la +Cosmographie, I., 75, 167, 178.] + +Just at the beginning of the fourteenth century, however, a new line +was struck out in map-making by the construction and steady development +of sailing charts, or "portolani." These humble attempts at +geographical representation were intended as practical aids to +navigation for Mediterranean mariners, and were based on practical +observation. During the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries they +reached a wonderful degree of accuracy. The coasts, bays, islands, and +promontories of the Mediterranean were plotted out in them and drawn +with striking correctness. Some four hundred such sketch-maps remain to +us, drawn by Italians from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, +besides nearly a hundred made in other countries. [Footnote: Beazley, +in Hakluyt Soc., Publications, 1899, cxx.] They did not undertake to +give the internal features of the countries whose coast-lines they +depicted, and as their main purpose was to aid Mediterranean trade, +they did not extend so far beyond its shore as the erudition of the age +would have made possible. + +The best of the world maps of the fifteenth century were based on these +Italian portolani rather than on mediaeval maps, and at the same time +added such enlarged information as became common in the Italy of the +fifteenth century. [Footnote: Ibid., cxxi., etc.] + +Thus, at the very beginning of the fifteenth century European explorers +had the benefit of the traditional ancient geography, of the new +exactness of knowledge drawn from the observations of recent +travellers, of the accurate but limited portolani of the Italian +navigators, and finally of the more pretentious, if vague and often +misleading, world maps of learned geographers. If a sailor wished to +navigate the Mediterranean and its adjacent waters, if he planned to +sail up the coast of Europe to the British Isles and on into the +Baltic, or to pass down the Atlantic coast of Africa to Cape Nun, he +might rely on the maps and charts which the Italian geographers could +furnish him. Or if he launched his galleys on the Red Sea he might use +their guidance down the east coast of Africa to the equator. He would +also find tolerably accurate descriptions of all the southern coasts of +Asia. In the interior a traveller by land could know beforehand the +main features of the countries he might traverse. Beyond these limits, +either by sea or by land, geographical knowledge must be sought by +discovery or followed along the lines of dim report. If European +sailors should follow the coast of Africa below the twenty-seventh +parallel of north latitude, or of Europe above the sixtieth, or if they +should direct their course into the western ocean beyond the Azores, +they would be sailing into the unknown, and whatever they should find +would be fresh acquisition. + +The two instruments which were the most requisite for distant voyaging, +the compass and the astrolabe (the predecessor of the quadrant), were +already, in 1400, known and used by Mediterranean navigators. The +property of turning towards the north, possessed by a magnetized +needle, was certainly known as early as the close of the twelfth +century; and even its use by sailors to find their directions when the +sun and stars were obscured. More than one mediaeval writer describes +the process by which a needle is rubbed on a piece of magnetic iron, +then laid on a straw or attached to a piece of cork, and floated on +water till its point turns towards the north star. [Footnote: Alexander +Neckham, De Utensilibus; De Natura Rerum, book II., chap, xcviii.; +Guyot de Provins, La Bible, Jacques de Vitry, Historia Orientalis; +Brunette Latini, Epistolas, who mentions Roger Bacon as showing him a +magnet at Oxford in 1258. Quoted in Beazley, Hakluyt Soc, Publications, +1899, cxliv., etc.] But its properties savored of magic; the earlier +sailors, who hugged the shore, scarcely needed it, and it came into +general use as slowly and imperceptibly as most of the other great +inventions of the world. + +The introduction of the compass into general use is, by tradition, +ascribed to the Italian city of Amain, and it is easy to believe that +the enterprising sailors of this commercial republic brought it into +established recognition. By the early years of the fifteenth century +the compass was provided with the card, marked with the directions, +placed in the compass-box, and made a well-known part of the equipment +of the navigator. [Footnote: Azurara, Discovery of Guinea, chap ix.] +The mariner could now tell his directions wherever he might be, and the +spider-web net-work of "compass-roses" on many of the early maps shows +how anxious the map-maker was to provide lines along which the +navigator might lay his course according to his compass. The makers of +the better class of portolani evidently had the use of the compass in +drawing their charts. [Footnote: Santarem, Essai sur L'Histoire de la +Cosmographie, I., 280-305.] The changed position of the heavenly bodies +as the early traveller passed northward or southward struck him with +especial force. Marco Polo, describing the island of Sumatra, says, +"But let me tell you one marvellous thing, and that is the fact that +this island lies so far to the south that the north star, little or +much, is never to be seen." [Footnote: Marco Polo (Yule's ed.), book +III., chap. ix.] He also notes on his journey northward through India, +when he sees it again, "two cubits above the water." When Cadamosto, +the Venetian, saw the pole-star at "the third of a lance's length above +the edge of the waves," he recorded it as one of the most striking +phenomena of his journey towards the equator. + +Two instruments were known by which the elevation above the horizon of +the pole-star, or any other heavenly body could be measured. The older +of these was the "cross-staff," or St. James's staff, a simple rod +marked into degrees, at the end of which the eye was placed and along +which a measured cross-piece was pushed, till one of its ends hid a +point oh the horizon and the other the sun or star whose height was +being measured. The astrolabe was a somewhat more elaborate instrument, +consisting of a brass circle marked with degrees, against which two +movable bars were fastened, each provided at the ends with a sight or +projecting piece pierced by a hole. This was hung by a ring from a peg +in the mast or from the hand, so that gravity would make one of its +bars horizontal. Then the other bar was sighted to point towards some +heavenly body. Chaucer, in 1400, gave to his "litel Lowis my sone" an +astrolabe calculated "after the latitude of Oxenford," and wrote a +charming treatise to explain to him in English its use, "for Latin ne +canstow yit but smal, my lyte sone." In this treatise he described to +him, among other things, "diverse tables of longitudes and latitudes of +sterres." [Footnote: Chaucer, A Treatise on the Astrolabe, Prologue; +Skeat, The Student's Chaucer, 396.] By means of either of these +instruments latitude could be measured or calculated. Longitude was a +more difficult problem; it involved the calculation of the difference +of time as well as measurements of elevation of the heavenly bodies. +The calculations necessary to discover actual locations from an +observation were too long and complicated to be made on each occasion; +and "ephemerides," or calculated tables of elevations of planets and of +differences of time, were required. Just when the earliest of such +tables were constructed and when chronometers came into use is obscure, +but they were in existence in at least a rudimentary form early in the +fifteenth century. [Footnote: Humboldt, Examen Critique, I., 274.] + +The condition of Europe early in the fifteenth century as compared with +its condition early in the thirteenth shows a great advance in those +lines which made extensive exploration possible, and this advance was +chiefly due to Italians. Increased knowledge, improved equipment, +instruments of astronomical observation, navigating charts, and a face +of educated navigators, made a part of the European background of +American history as truly as did the incentive to exploration afforded +by the search for new routes to the East. Of course much progress +remained to be accomplished in the making of maps and globes, in the +improvement of instruments, and in the calculation of tables during the +period of discovery. The awakened scientific interest which had already +shown itself as part of the Renaissance found scope in the practical +requirements of distant voyages. While men were discovering new +continents and seas, they were at the same time solving many problems +of geographical science and perfecting the equipment by which further +advance was made practicable. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PIONEER WORK OF PORTUGAL (1400-1527) + + +The great period of explorations, of which the discovery of America was +a part, lay between the years 1485 and 1520, between the discovery of +the Cape of Good Hope by Diaz and the circumnavigation of the globe by +the ships of Magellan. Long before this period of fruition, however, +there was a significant movement of discovery, and an important +acquisition of knowledge, experience, and boldness in exploration. This +early dawn, preparatory to the later day, consisted in a series of +discoveries on the west coast of Africa, due to the energy of the +Portuguese and to the enlightenment of their great Prince Henry. + +Portugal was especially fitted to be the pioneer in modern maritime +exploration. Without geographical or racial separation from the rest of +the Iberian peninsula, the national distinctness of Portugal was +largely a matter of sentiment gathering around the sovereign. The +nationality of Portugal had been created in the first place by the +policy of its rulers, and preserved by them until the growth of +separate material interests, a national language and literature, and +traditions of glorious achievements confirmed the separateness of the +Portuguese nationality from that of Spain. + +The desire to hold aloof from other Spanish countries turned the +attention of the king of Portugal to more distant alliances, and the +open western seaboard naturally suggested that these should be with +maritime states. In 1294 a treaty of commerce was signed with England. +A century later, 1386, a much closer alliance with that country was +formed and a new treaty signed at Windsor. [Footnote: Rymer, Foedera, +II., 667, VII., 515-523.] This was followed in the next year by a +marriage between the king of Portugal and Philippa, daughter of the +English John of Gaunt and first cousin of King Richard. This "Treaty of +Windsor" was renewed again and again by succeeding English and +Portuguese sovereigns and remained the foundation of their relationship +until it was superseded long afterwards by still closer treaty +arrangements. With Flanders, Portugal had frequent peaceful +intercourse, both in trade and in diplomacy. A Venetian fleet also +called from time to time at the harbor of Lisbon on the way to and from +England and Flanders, and thus brought Portugal into contact with the +great Italian republic, and may have aroused an interest in far Eastern +trade products of which loaded the galleys. + +The contract before referred to by which Emanuel Pesagno was made +hereditary lord high admiral, in 1317, continued to be fulfilled by the +descendants of the first great admiral through the whole fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, and kept up a constant connection with Genoa. +[Footnote: M. G. Canale, Storia del Commercio, Viaggi, &c., degl' +Italiani, book II., chap. x., etc., quoted by Payne, New World, 96.] +Thus the associations of Portugal were with a line of seaboard states +extending from England to Italy. After 1263 the maritime interests of +the Portuguese kings became more distinct by their conquest from the +Moors of the kingdom of Algarves, giving them a southern as well as a +western sea-coast. [Footnote: Stephens, Hist. of Portugal, 81.] It was +at Sagres, on Cape St. Vincent, which juts out into the open Atlantic +Ocean on the extreme southwest of this province, that Henry, the fifth +son of John II. of Portugal, established his dwelling-place in 1419, +and created a centre of maritime interest and a base of exploring +effort which was of world-wide influence. Henry was duke of Viseu, lord +of Cavailham, viceroy of Algarves, and grand master of the Order of +Christ. He had no wife or children; his private estate was, therefore, +available for the expenses of exploring voyages; and projects of +geographical discovery became his chief occupation. Whatever other +duties or services were required of him on account of his membership in +the royal family, he always returned to Sagres and to his exploring +expeditions. He possessed also the interest and support of his father +and brother, who successively occupied the throne. After his death his +work was carried on by his nephew, King Alfonso V. The work of Henry +was, therefore, substantially the concern of the whole royal family of +Portugal for three generations. [Footnote: Major, Prince Henry the +Navigator, chaps. iv., vi., xiii., xviii.] + +Prince Henry "the Navigator," as he has come to be called, gathered +around him a body of men trained as sailors; he learned the use of +charts and instruments, taught these arts to his captains, and +ultimately made the neighboring port of Lagos the most famous point in +the world for the departure and return of exploring expeditions. +[Footnote: Nordenskiold, Periplus, 121 A. For discussion of divergent +views of Prince Henry's "school of navigation," see Beazley.] During +forty years expedition after expedition was equipped almost yearly and +sent down along the west coast of Africa, in the effort to solve its +mystery and, if possible, to sail around its southern extremity. + +In the process of exploration Prince Henry was governed by some of the +strongest of human impulses. The crusading spirit was hot within him, +and he hoped to continue in Africa the old struggle of the Portuguese +Christians against the Moorish infidels. Gentler missionary ideals +caused him to plan to spread Christianity into new lands, and to make +connection with Prester John, the Christian ruler of the India which +lay to the eastward of Africa. [Footnote: Hakluyt Soc., Publications, +1899, cvi.-cxii. Murara, Discovery of Guinea, chaps, vii., xvi.] His +interest in trade was equally strong; he was familiar with the internal +trade of Africa, and he lost no opportunity of developing traffic along +the sea-coast. [Footnote: Azurara, Discovery of Guinea, chap. vii] + +Yet it was the instinct of the explorer that inspired Prince Henry with +the steady devotion to his life work. The fine curiosity which placed +geographical discovery above all material gain, and rewarded his +captains, not in proportion to what they had accomplished, but in +proportion to the efforts they had made to carry the boundaries of +knowledge farther, kept him and them intent on the work of exploration. +[Footnote: Bourne, "Prince Henry the Navigator," in Essays in +Historical Criticism, 173-189.] Henry possessed, at the beginning of +his explorations, little more than the traditional geographical +conceptions of the later Middle Ages. Besides some twelve or fourteen +extant fourteenth-century maps drawn by Italian draughtsmen, which were +probably all known to Henry, his brother Pedro gave him one which has +since disappeared, which had been constructed at Venice, and which "had +all the parts of the world and earth described." [Footnote: Major, +Prince Henry, 62.] He was probably also familiar with the classical +tales of the circumnavigation of Africa. + +Besides this he had some important personal knowledge. During a +Portuguese invasion of the Barbary states of Africa in 1415, in which +Prince Henry served with his father and brothers, and later when he was +himself in command, he found that there were caravan routes whose +termini were at Ceuta and other Mediterranean towns. From the Sahara +and the Soudan, across the desert, came caravans to the Mediterranean +coast bringing gold, wine, and slaves, and news of trading routes far +to the southward. + +Moreover, these routes extended to rivers and seacoasts unknown to +Europeans, which must, nevertheless, be connected with the open +Atlantic Ocean, and might well be on the southern shore of that +continent. "He got news of the passage of merchants from the coast of +Tunis to Timbuctoo and to Cantor on the Gambia, which inspired him to +seek those lands by way of the sea." [Footnote: Diego Gomez, quoted in +Beazley, Introduction to Azurara's Chronicle (Hakluyt Soc., +Publications, 1899).] "The tawny Moors, his prisoners, told him of +certain tall palms growing at the mouth of the Senegal or western Nile, +by which he was able to guide the caravels which he sent out to find +that river." [Footnote: Ibid.] + +The first decade of Henry's efforts, from 1420 to 1430, resulted in +little in the way of new discovery. The Madeira and Azores islands were +rediscovered and their full exploration and permanent colonization +begun. Every year saw one or more caravels sent from Lagos southward to +follow the coast of the main-land; but they skirted no shores that were +not desert, and turned back baffled by their own fears. Cape Boyador +long remained a barrier whose imaginary dangers of reef and shoal +served as an excuse for the still more unreal horrors of the "Sea of +Darkness." + +The next decade saw better results. In 1434 Gil Eannes, one of the +boldest of the captains who were growing up in Prince Henry's service, +when he reached Boyador, sailed far out to sea, doubled the cape, and, +returning to the coast, landed and gathered "St. Mary's roses," and +took them home to the prince as a memento of the "farthest South." +[Footnote: Azurara, Discovery of Guinea, chap. ix.] The greatest +barrier had been passed, that of superstitious dread, and almost every +voyage now brought its result of progress farther southward. Soon the +boundaries of Islam were passed, for natives were found on the coast +who were not Mohammedans. + +The third decade saw still further advance. In 1441 Nuno Tristam +discovered Cape Blanco, the "White Cape," glistening with the white +sand of the Sahara. In 1445 Dinis Diaz, of Lisbon, sailed at last +beyond the desert and reached Cape Verd, the "Green Cape," [Footnote: +Ibid., chap. xxxi.] fifteen hundred miles down the African coast, and +as far from Gibraltar south as Constantinople was east. By this time +the captains of Prince Henry had reached the fertile and populous +shores where the western Soudan borders on the Atlantic Ocean, and a +new obstacle to further exploration revealed itself in the attraction +and the profit of the slave-trade. + +The first "Moors" or negroes were some ten or twelve captured and +brought home in the year 1441 by Antam Goncalvez, to satisfy the +curiosity of the prince and to obtain information useful for the +further prosecution of the voyages. Others were soon brought for other +purposes. Of the two hundred and thirty-five Moors who made up the +first full cargo of human freight, the prince gave away the fifty-six +which fell to his share as one-fifth, although it is recorded with the +somewhat grotesque piety of the fifteenth century that "he reflected +with great pleasure on the salvation of their souls that before were +lost." [Footnote: Azurara, Discovery of Guinea, chap. xxv.] + +There is no reason to believe that Henry planned or wished the +development of a trade in slaves; [Footnote: The statement to the +contrary in the Cambridge Modern Hist., I., 10, is not deducible from +any contemporary evidence.] but labor was scarce on the great estates +of southern Portugal, slaves were in demand, and very different desires +from those of the prince might be gratified by capturing and bringing +to the slave-market of Lagos the unfortunate natives of the newly +discovered coasts. Hence one expedition after another, sent out for +purposes of discovery, returned, bringing tales of failure to reach +farther points on the coast, but laden with human booty to be sold. +Private adventurers sought and obtained the prince's permission to send +out caravels, and these also brought home cargoes of slaves. Only the +most vigorous pressure, exercised on the choicest spirits among the +Portuguese captains, served now to carry discoveries farther. + +Nevertheless, a basis of interest in distant voyages had been found +which had not existed before; and the further exploration of the +African coast was certain, even in default of the personal +enlightenment and enthusiasm of the Navigator. The expeditions sent by +the prince and private voyages made familiar to the mariners of +Portugal two thousand miles of coast instead of six hundred as of old. +Guinea was eventually reached. + +In 1455 the Venetian Cadamosto entered into Henry's service; and, +followed closely by Diego Gomez, discovered the Cape Verd Islands and +passed so far around the shoulder of northwestern Africa as not only to +reach the ends of the caravan routes from Morocco, and to open up trade +in gold, ivory, and the products of the Guinea coast, but to suggest +that there was open sea now all the way eastward to India. The +temporary disappointment of finding that this was not true was left to +the successors of Prince Henry, for his death occurred in 1460. But the +work was still carried on by his nephew, Alfonso V., and by the next +king of Portugal, John II. + +A series of bold pilots now passed beyond the whole Guinea coast, +crossed the equator, and made their way down almost two thousand miles +more of the African coast. The belief became assured that "ships which +sailed down the coast of Guinea might be sure to reach the end of the +land by persisting to the south"; and stone pillars six feet high were +ordered to be erected at landing-places to indicate possession and mark +the stages of the route to the Indies. + +Finally, in 1486, Bartholomew Diaz, the third member of his family to +take part in the discoveries of Prince Henry, with two vessels sailed +the remaining distance on the coast, and passed so far to the eastward +that his sailors mutinied and refused to go farther. Diaz then suddenly +realized that, notwithstanding the necessity for his return, he had at +last found the passage-way to India dreamed of through so many ages and +sought for at such heavy cost. + +A period of still greater discoveries was already at hand. "It was in +Portugal," says Ferdinand Columbus, "that the admiral began to surmise +that if men could sail so far south, one might also sail west and find +lands in that direction." The Portuguese were so wedded to the search +for the southeast route, and it was so nearly achieved at this time, +that their interest was but languid in the plans for a search to the +westward. Another people therefore took it up, and soon the exploration +of the New World was in full tide, and the period of pioneer effort +passed into the era of great accomplishment. + +Meanwhile Portugal saw the fruition of Prince Henry's work in the +circumnavigation of Africa. Ten years later than the exploit of Diaz, +in 1496, a fleet sailed from Lisbon under Vasco da Gama which was +destined to round the Cape, make its way up the east coast of Africa +till familiar parts of the Indian Ocean were reached; then to sail +across to India, cast anchor, and secure cargo in Calicut and many +other ancient ports; and to return thence safely to its port of +departure. [Footnote: The First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, in Hakluyt +Soc., Publications, 1898.] The Portuguese search for a new route to the +lands of Eastern products was thus successful; and once found, this +path became familiar. The fleet of Cabral in 1500 immediately followed +that of Da Gama, and, driven to the westward as it sailed to the south, +discovered Brazil, as a casual incident of its successful voyage to +India. Thus, if the voyage of Columbus had never been undertaken, +America would have been found within less than a decade. + +Albuquerque followed around the southeast passage in 1503; a permanent +traffic between Portugal and India was established, and thereafter +yearly fleets of merchant and war vessels rounded the Cape. Soon most +of the points of vantage of the Indies were in Portuguese control-- +Ormuz, Diu, Goa, Ceylon, Malacca--and the enterprising little western +state had trade settlements in Burma, China, and Japan. [Footnote: +Hunter, Hist, of British India, I., 110-133.] The private path of the +Portuguese ultimately became the public highway of the nations. Spain, +Holland, England, and France sent fleets around the Cape of Good Hope, +and made use of the route to the East which the Portuguese had +discovered. + +The actual progress of scientific knowledge and practical equipment for +navigation made at Sagres, Lagos, Lisbon, and on the seas, during the +voyages sent out by Prince Henry and his immediate successors, is +unfortunately not accurately known; but some glimpses of it may be +obtained. "In his wish to gain a prosperous result of his efforts," +says an almost contemporary historian, "the Prince devoted great +industry and thought to the matter, and at great expense procured the +aid of one Master Jacome from Majorca, a man skilled in the art of +navigation and in the making of maps and instruments, and who was sent +for, with certain of the Arab and Jewish mathematicians, to instruct +the Portuguese." [Footnote: De Barros, Decadas da Asia, quoted in +Beazley, Henry the Navigator, 161.] + +When trained Italian navigators applied to Henry, as was the case with +the Venetian Cadamosto, they were readily taken into his service, and +he sent word by them that he would heartily welcome any other such +volunteers. When the prince's work fell into the hands of his nephew, +King John, the latter appointed the German Behaim, of Nuremberg, who +lived in Lisbon from 1480 to 1484, to be one of the four members of his +"Junto de Mathematicos." It was Behaim who introduced to the Portuguese +the improved ephemerides calculated by the German Regiomontanus, and +printed at Nuremberg in 1474. He also improved the astrolabe and the +staff, drew charts and made globes, and accompanied one of the West- +African expeditions in 1489. [Footnote: Major, Prince Henry the +Navigator, 326-328.] Diego Gomez, one of Henry's captains, remarks, in +describing his voyage of 1460, "I had a quadrant with me and wrote on +the table of it the altitude of the arctic pole, and I found it better +than the chart; for though you see your course of sailing on the chart +well enough, yet if once you get wrong it is hard by map alone to work +back into the right course." [Footnote: Quoted, in Beazley, Henry the +Navigator, 297, 298.] Azurara also contrasts the incorrect charts with +which Henry's sailors were provided before their explorations with +those corrected by the later observations. [Footnote: Azurara, +Discovery of Guinea, chap. Lxxvi.] His navigators, therefore, used the +compass, the quadrant, and carefully constructed charts; but their +advances in the use of this equipment are not recorded. + +The first portolano to note the discoveries on the coast of Africa made +by the Portuguese was that of Gabriele de Valsecca, of Majorca (1434- +1439). A map drawn by Andrea Bianco, of Venice, at London in 1448, +seems to have been intended especially to indicate them, as it gives +twenty-seven new names along the coast to the south of Cape Boyador. +But the map which was distinctively the outcome of the new discoveries +was the so-called "Camaldolese map of Fra Mauro," drawn by Mauro, +Bianco, and other draughtsmen during the year 1457, in the convent of +Murano in Venice. King Alfonso of Portugal himself paid the expenses of +its construction, and sent charts showing the recent discoveries. It +included all the new knowledge obtained up to that time by Prince +Henry's explorers. It is the first large map drawn with the exactness +and the reliance on observed facts of the portolano, notwithstanding +the fact that it included a larger part of the earth's surface in its +field than any earlier map. Though disappointing in some respects, it +stands in the forefront of improved modern maps, and not unworthily +represents the advance made in the knowledge of the world's surface as +a result of the Portuguese efforts up to that time. The scientific +importance of the discoveries of the Portuguese and the intellectual +alertness of the Italians are alike illustrated by an incident that +occurred at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1491. Columbus +having explained to the sovereigns his scheme for a western voyage to +reach the Indies, most of the Spanish prelates who were present +declared his ideas heretical, supporting themselves upon the authority +of St. Augustine and Nicholas de Lyra. Alessandro Geraldini, an +Italian, preceptor of the royal children, who was standing behind +Cardinal Mendoza at the time, "represented to him that Nicholas de Lyra +and St. Augustine had been, without doubt, excellent theologians but +only mediocre geographers, since the Portuguese had reached a point of +the other hemisphere where they had ceased to see the pole-star and +discovered another star at the opposite pole, and that they had even +found all the countries situated under the torrid zone fully peopled." +[Footnote: Mariejol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle, 96.] In +ship-building Henry and his navigators made positive progress. The +Venetian Cadamosto testifies that "his caravels did much excel all +other sailing ships afloat." Many varieties of vessels are mentioned in +the records of Prince Henry's time--the barca, barinel, caravel, nau, +fusta; the galley, galiot, galeass, and galleon; the brigantine and +carrack. Of all these the caravel became the favored for the long, +exploring voyages. It was usually from sixty to one hundred feet long +and eighteen to twenty-five feet broad, and of about two hundred tons +burden. It had three masts with lateen sails stretched on the oblique +yards which were swung from the masthead, and was steered, at least +partly, by the turning of these great, swinging sails. [Footnote: +Revista Portuguesa, Colonial (May 20, 1898), 32-52, quoted by Beazley, +Introduction to Azurara's Chronicle (Hakluyt Soc., Publications, 1899, +p. cxii.).] John II. encouraged the immigration of English and Danish +ship-builders and carried improvements still further. The greatest +service to navigation done by Prince Henry and his successors was that +of providing a school of sea-training. Not only were the whole group of +early Portuguese explorers, Henry's own captains, "brought up from +boyhood in the household of the Infant," [Footnote: Azurara, Discovery +of Guinea, chap xiii.] but there was scarcely a name great in +navigation in the succeeding period which had not in some way been +connected with these voyages. Diaz, Da Gama, Albuquerque, Da Cunha, +Cabral, and the other captains who made the Portuguese empire in the +East, Magellan, who found still another way to India by the southwest; +Estevam Gomez, who sailed to the arctic seas; Bartholomew and +Christopher Columbus--were all taught or practised in that school. +Columbus lived in Lisbon from 1470 to 1484, married there the daughter +of Bartholomew Perestrello, the discoverer and captain-general under +Prince Henry of Porto Santo in the Madeiras; and, besides his voyages +on the Mediterranean and to England and Iceland, went repeatedly to the +coast of Guinea and lived for some years in the Madeiras. Between 1477 +and 1484 he was regularly engaged in the maritime service of the +Portuguese crown. Besides these great names, many navigators who had +only local repute or have remained nameless were Portuguese in birth +and training, and belonged to the same maritime school. In 1502, close +upon the English grants of exploring and trading rights to the Cabots, +came a similar concession to "Hugh Elliott and Thomas Ashehurst, +merchants of Bristol, and to John Gunsalus and Francis Fernandez, Esq., +subjects of the king of Portugal." [Footnote: Rymer, Foedera] The +expedition of the French captain De Gonneville to Brazil, in 1503, was +guided by two Portuguese pilots; [Footnote: Pigeonncau, Hist du +Commerce, II, 50.] and twenty of the sailors on Magellan's Spanish +fleet of 1519, besides the commander, were Portuguese. [Footnote: +Navarrete, Coleccion, II, 12] Three vessels from Dieppe, under +Portuguese pilotage, in 1527, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and visited +Madagascar, Sumatra, and the coast of India. [Footnote: De Barros, +Decadas da Asia (Madrid ed., 1615), 42 decade, book V., chap, vi., +296.] + +Actual skill in navigating vessels was increased and developed to a +high degree in the struggle with the adverse maritime conditions on the +coast of Africa. The violent and disturbing currents, the terrible surf +of the beaches, the cyclones of the Guinea coast, the trade-winds, +which were always head-winds to the mariners returning from the south- +west, the uncharted reefs and bars, all favored a school of seamanship +which trained the Portuguese and Italian sailors to meet far worse +difficulties than those likely to confront them in the later and more +distant voyages to the westward. + +Other experiences of the Portuguese were later utilized by the +Spaniards in their American colonies. The slave-trade was a sombre +precedent, followed only too readily; the system of grants of newly +discovered territory to captains or contractors who would continue its +discovery or conquest, exploit its resources, and pay to the crown a +large share of its products was followed, somewhat intermittently, in +the West Indies and Central and South America. [Footnote: Bourne, Spain +in America, chap. xiv.] + +One of the permanent lessons of the Portuguese explorations was the +need for and effectiveness of royal or quasi-royal patronage. Italian +expeditions bore no fruit and could bear none, for this requirement of +patronage was but ill-afforded by her merchant cities or even by her +merchant princes. It was impossible for Venice or Genoa to take a part +in the new discoveries and follow the new lines of trade, not only +because of their unfavorable geographical position, not only because +they were then engaged in a desperate military and economic struggle to +retain their old Levantine trade conquests and connections, not only +because their wealth and prosperity were deeply smitten by their mutual +struggles and their common losses from the repeated blows of the +Ottoman conquest, but because Italy had no royal family to take under +its patronage distant discovery, conquest, trade, and colonization. +Italy furnished most of the knowledge, the skill, and the individual +enterprise that made the great period of explorations; but Portugal, +under the leadership of her great prince, was its true pioneer. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SPANISH MONARCHY IN THE AGE OF COLUMBUS + +(1474-1525) + + +The limits of Portuguese discovery and dominion were soon reached; and +as the fifteenth century advanced, Spain emerged not only as one of the +great powers of Europe but as the first exploring, conquering, and +colonizing nation of America. A century before any other European state +obtained a permanent foothold in the New World, Spain began the +creation of a great colonial empire there, which was soon occupied by +her settlers, administered by a department of her government, converted +by her missionaries, and made famous throughout Europe by the wealth +which it brought to the mother-country. Such a work at such a time +could only be accomplished by a vigorous and rising nation, and, in +fact, Spanish advancement in Europe during this period corresponded +closely with her achievements in America. There are few recorded +instances of a development so rapid and a transformation so complete as +that which took place in Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella, between +1474 and 1516. + +For a career destined to be scarcely inferior to that any of the great +empires of history, Spain had at the beginning of this period an +inadequate and undeveloped political organization. Even that royal +power which was the condition precedent to distant conquest and +colonial organization was new. Spanish national unity, royal +absolutism, and religious uniformity, which were famous throughout +Europe in the sixteenth century, were all of recent growth; the +centralized control over all parts of her widely scattered colonies +which Spain, above all colonizing countries, exercised, was a power +attained and a policy adopted only at the moment of the acquisition of +those colonies. + +When, in 1474, Isabella inherited the crown of Castille, and, in 1479, +her husband, Ferdinand, became king of Aragon, they united, by close +personal and political bonds, what had formerly been near a score of +domains, variously joined or detached. + +The king of Aragon had already incorporated into a personal union three +separate countries--the kingdom of Aragon, the kingdom of Valencia, and +the ancient principality of Catalonia, each with its own body of +representatives, its own law, its peculiar customs, and its separate +administrative systems. Castile was in name a political unity, having +one monarch and one body of estates. Nevertheless its provinces +represented well-marked ancient divisions. Leon had once been a +separate kingdom, and was still coupled with Castile itself in the full +title of that monarchy; while Galicia, Asturias, and the three Basque +provinces were inhabited by peoples of different political history, of +different stock, and living under different customs. Navarre, Granada, +and Portugal, although within the Iberian peninsula, were, at the +accession of Ferdinand and Isabella, still independent; though the +first was destined to be united to Aragon, the second to Castile, and +even the third was to be amalgamated for eighty critical years with the +greater monarchy. Thus Spain was a congeries of states, joined by the +marriage bond of the two rulers of its principal divisions, but by no +means yet a single monarchy or a united nation. It was the work of the +Catholic sovereigns to carry this unification far towards completion by +following common aims, by achieving success in many fields of common +national interest, and by imposing the common royal power upon all +divergent and warring classes and interests in the various Spanish +states. + +The personality of Ferdinand and Isabella was the first great factor in +the strengthening of the monarchy; for they were both individuals of +authority, energy, and ability. [Footnote: Burgenroth, Col. Letters and +State Papers, Spain, I., 34, etc.] Their union was the next element; +for the royal power of the united monarchies could be used to break +down opposition in either. Great achievements in Spain and in Europe +increased their authority and power by the prestige of success. +Finally, the discoveries, conquests, and colonization of America gave a +unique position to the rulers of these distant possessions. Not only +did the products of the American mines American commercial taxation +furnish a material basis of strength and influence; not only did a +great commercial marine and a great navy grow up around the needs of +intercourse with the colonies; but the romantic interest of the +discoveries, the wild adventures, and the wonderful success of the +conquistadores, and the extent of the colonies, filled the imagination +and gave an ideal greatness to the monarchs in whose name these +conquests were made, and by whom the New World was ruled. + +There was need for all the authority of the new sovereigns at the time +of their accession in 1474. Under the weak rule of Isabella's brother, +Castile had become a prey to disorder amounting almost to anarchy; in +Galicia brigandage was so common as to be unresisted, except by +townsmen staying within walls; in Andalusia private warfare among the +great noble houses had let loose all the forces of disorder and +violence; Isabella's claim to the crown was disputed and her rival +upheld by foreign support. [Footnote: Maurenbrecher, Studien und +Studien, 45, 46.] The united sovereigns met these difficulties with +vigor, and the first two years of Isabella's rule in Castile gave +repeated instances of victorious warfare, of successful assertion of +authority, and of harsh justice. The turbulent districts were reduced +to order and the foreign invader expelled. + +The disorder in Andalusia seemed to demand personal action. In 1477, +therefore, the two sovereigns made a formal entry into Seville, and the +queen asserted her royal power in a way that could not be +misunderstood. In true patriarchal fashion she established her tribunal +in the Alcazar, sitting in a chair on an elevated platform surrounded +by her council and officers, in all solemnity and according to +traditional forms, listening to the complaints of high and low, rich +and poor, and granting summary justice to all who claimed it, +irrespective of rank or means. Her decrees were carried out, ill-doers +forced to make amends, and turbulent nobles reduced to promising to +keep the peace. The visit of Isabella to Seville may well be taken as +the beginning of the work of the new monarchy in Spain. [Footnote: +Perez, Los Reyes Catolicos in Sevilla, 1477-1478, p. 13.] + +The next step towards an enforcement of royal authority taken by the +new monarchs involved the acknowledgment of an institution seemingly +independent of the monarchy. Spanish cities and communes had at various +times formed hermandads, leagues or brotherhoods, to enforce order, to +support themselves against great nobles, or to strengthen themselves +for the carrying out of some object of common policy. Instances could +be found in which their combined strength had been used against the +king himself or his officials. On the other hand, their united power +had been used efficaciously to form a sort of rural police, each city +undertaking the protection of certain roads and stretches of country. +[Footnote: Antequera, Hist. de la Legislacion Espanola, 194-197.] + +Two influential ministers, with the approval of Ferdinand and Isabella, +in 1476, obtained the agreement of the Cortes of Castile and of a junta +of the towns for the formation of a santa hermandad, or "holy +brotherhood," for three years, for which rules were drawn up, submitted +to the monarchs, and filially promulgated. The nobles gave a reluctant +assent to the requirements of these rules, so far as they affected +their estates and vassals. Altogether two thousand horsemen were to be +equipped, each horseman supported by a body of one hundred households. +These were grouped into companies under eight captains and placed in +detachments at certain distances along all the roads. Besides the armed +soldiers of the brotherhood, a whole system of alcaldes was organized +with exclusive jurisdiction over certain kinds of offences. A common +treasury existed for the support of expenses. + +When any theft, assault, arson, or rape was discovered or complained +of, immediately the bells Were rung, and the nearest detachment of +soldiers of the brotherhood started on a pursuit which was carried to +the boundaries of the next district, where its detachment took up the +pursuit, and so on until the culprit was seized or the boundaries of +the kingdom reached. No town, house, or castle could refuse the right +of search. When arrested, a decision of the nearest alcalde was given +within five days. If convicted, the culprit had hand or foot cut off or +was put to death. The favorite mode of execution in earlier times had +been to bind the offender to a stake, and shoot him with arrows "till +he died naturally"; but Isabella required that he should be hanged +first, and that only then might his body be used as a target and a +warning for others. The rapidity of pursuit and the certainty of +capture of offenders, the promptitude of justice, and the barbarism of +the punishments made a strong impression; and the combination of +popular vengeance with official sanction made the hermandad an +effective form of national police. It was introduced into Aragon in +1488. + +Although this system seemed to emanate from the people, the general +control over it was preserved by Ferdinand and Isabella by placing in +influential positions in its administration trusted ministers of their +own, and by joining themselves in its organization. When its work of +insuring order was measurably accomplished and the people began to +complain of its expense, the sovereigns were able to transfer the +military force into a contingent for the Moorish war, and the treasury +into an addition to the commissariat for the same purpose. In 1498 it +was reduced to the proportions of a petty and inexpensive local police. +It had proved itself, as utilized by these strong monarchs, a means of +obtaining order and recruiting an army without cost to the royal +treasury. + +The vigor of the royal administration, however, expressed itself rather +in the development of purely royal organs than in those which were so +largely popular as the hermandad. A group of royal councils became, +under Ferdinand and Isabella, the most powerful instruments of the +royal will, the most effective means for obtaining additional power and +beating down all opposition. Early in the reign, the old royal council, +which traditionally consisted of twelve members, including +representatives of each of the three orders of the state, was +reconstituted so as to consist of one ecclesiastic, three nobles, and +eight or nine letrados, or lawyers. [Footnote: Cortes de los Antiguos +Reinos, 112, etc.] The last class, who made up its majority, were men +learned in the Roman law, and therefore devoted to the idea of absolute +monarchy; without connection with the church or the nobility, and +therefore interested in the strengthening of the kingship against both; +shrewd, trained, capable, and hard working. + +From this time forward the council, in constant attendance on the king, +well organized, provided with a corps of clerks and officers, and +holding daily sessions, became the serviceable and effective auxiliary +of royal power. It had duties of consultation, advice, and in some +cases decision, on matters of internal and external policy, of +legislation and administration; and, in fact, of action in the whole +sphere of the affairs of state. In time the council was gradually +subdivided into three bodies: the Council of Justice, the Council of +State, and the Council of the Finances, whose functions were indicated +by their titles. The first of these was, in a certain sense, the direct +representative of the old single royal council, and was frequently +known as the Council of Castile. Its president was always considered +the highest personage in the kingdom, next the king; its members were +of that class of letrados whom the king could most securely rely on, +and to it fell the duty of enforcing the royal supremacy as against all +ancient claims, privileges, and liberties. + +In addition to these outgrowths from the primitive council of the king, +new councils were created from time to time, analogous in powers, but +holding oversight over special spheres of national interest. Some of +these were temporary, others permanent. Among them were the Council of +the Hermandad, which lasted only for the twenty-two years of the +existence of that institution; the Council of the Suprema, or of the +Inquisition; the Council of the Military Orders, the Council of the +Indies, and the Council of Aragon. [Footnote: Antequera, Hist. de la +Legislation Espanola, 347, 348.] These great administrative boards were +a characteristic part of the Spanish system of government, a natural +outgrowth of its wide-spread fields of action. + +The Council of the Indies was constituted in 1511, under the presidency +of Juan de Fonseca, archdeacon of Seville, and was exactly analogous to +the other councils. It accompanied the king, and had under him all +ultimate control in policy, in jurisdiction, and in legislation over +the Spanish possessions in America and in the East. Its members were +habitually drawn from those men who had had experience as public +servants in the West Indies or in the Philippines. The more direct +oversight of individual voyages to the Indies, the regulation of +details of colonial affairs, and a large sphere of general activity +were possessed by the powerful Casa le Contractacion at Seville. A +Bureau of Pilots also existed, whose office it was to collect nautical +information, provide charts, and give assistance to Spanish navigators. +But both of these offices were under the control of the Council of the +Indies. [Footnote: J. de Veitia Linage, The Spanish Rule of Trade to +the West Indies, trans. by Captain J. Stevens, book I., chap. iii.] + +All these councils were stronger in discussion than the execution; +their archives came to include a vast mass of records and special +reports on subjects falling within their respective fields, and their +procedure favored penetrating investigation and full debate. But +decision was hard to come at, and the consciousness that final decision +after all rested with the king paralyzed effectiveness. The custom of +submitting all questions of policy to investigation by the appropriate +council became invariable in later Spanish history, and it resulted in +cumbrous ineffectiveness. Interminable inquiry and discussion ended +frequently only in suspension of judgment or a divided report. Points +of policy of imminent importance had to await a dilatory investigation +and equivocal conclusions. This impotence of the central organs of +government did not come in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella and their +immediate successors, and the growing inefficiency of the councils was +long overcome by the resolution of the monarchs. Nevertheless the +system was part of the price paid for centralized government, acting +independently of local initiative or independence. + +The preponderance of power that was being obtained by the sovereigns in +the affairs of central government by means of the royal councils was +gained in the local affairs of provinces, towns, and communes, by the +appointment of corregidores. Such officials were appointed from time to +time by earlier sovereigns to represent them in various towns, but the +system had never been extended widely. In 1480 the king and queen sent +one or more corregidores into every self-governing town and city in +Castile where such officials did not exist already. [Footnote: Pulgar, +Cronita de los Reyes, II., chap. xcv.] They were to act alongside of +the older local regidores and alcaldes as special representatives of +the crown, defending its rights and claims, and fulfilling its duties +of general oversight and protection. As a matter of fact, the great +work they accomplished was the enforcement of royal supremacy over +local privileges. Little by little they extended their powers and +encroached upon the local self-government, bringing to bear all the +weight of the central government upon local conditions. [Footnote: +Mariejol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle, 172-174.] The steady +pressure of the corregidores was supplemented by the periodical visits +of the pesquidores, veidores, or inspectors, whose duty it from time to +time to visit the various localities, examining into the conduct of the +corregidores and other officials, listening to complaints against them, +reporting on the revenues, condition of the roads, and other local +conditions and needs. + +Councils, corregidores, inspectors, and various other instruments of +royal power fast sapped the strength of older institutions and gave +authority and efficiency to the royal government; but they were +expensive and the crown was poor. Moreover, these institutions were +only the permanent elements in a policy which had a thousand temporary +occasions of expense. Not even Ferdinand and Isabella could carry out +so vigorous a regime unless provided with larger revenues. They +determined, therefore, to emancipate the crown from its poverty. A few +years after their accession they felt themselves strong enough, +supported by the representatives of the towns, in the Cortes of Toledo, +to convoke the great nobles and churchmen of the kingdom and demand +from them an investigation into the conditions under which the ancient +domains of the crown had been alienated. [Footnote: Pulgar, Cronica de +los Reyes, II, chap. xcv.; Calmeiro, Introduction to Cortes de los +Antiguos Reinos, II., 63, 64.] The Cardinal Pedro de Mendoza and the +queen's confessor, Ferdinand de Talavera, were appointed to judge of +the propriety of the gifts of former sovereigns. They did their work so +adequately that pension after pension, estate after estate, endowment +after endowment, were resumed by the crown. These resumptions were +principally to the loss of the great noble families which had enriched +themselves at the expense of the crown. None, it is true, were +impoverished thereby, but a more normal relation of comparative income +between sovereign and subject was established in the process. +[Footnote: Mariejol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle, vi., 24.] +Another and more permanent addition to the royal income was made by the +absorption into the crown of the grand masterships of the three +military orders which existed in Castile, the Knights of Santiago, of +Calatrava, and of Alcantara. In the course of three centuries of +conquest from the Moslems these orders had added estate to estate, +territory to territory, town to town, benefice to benefice, till their +possessions extended widely through Spain, their income perhaps +equalled that of the king, and their rule as landlords extended over +almost a million people, or one-third the population of Castile. +[Footnote: Vicente de la Fuente, Hist Generale de Espana, V., 79.] At +the head of each of these orders was a grand master, whose rich income, +military following, and prestige made him one of the greatest nobles in +Europe. There was reason in the claim that these grand masterships were +antagonistic to royalty. Those who held them were the most turbulent +nobles of Spain, and in earlier times had been the leaders in many a +revolt against the crown. Their military system was co-ordinate with, +and sometimes in conflict with, that of the king; their estates +surrounded royal fortresses and sometimes excluded royal forces from +frontier districts. + +In 1487 when the grand mastership of the order of Calatrava became +vacant, Ferdinand presented himself in the chapter of the commanders of +the order, exhibited a papal bull giving him the administration of the +order, and forced the assembly to elect him grand master. In 1494, with +less formality, the grand master of Alcantara was induced to resign to +the king his office, receiving, in recompense, the dignity of +archbishop of Seville. Two years later, when the grand master of the +order of Santiago died, Ferdinand had himself elected without +difficulty. [Footnote: Maurenbrecher, Studien und Skizzen, 54.] Some +time after this Isabella issued a pragmatic decree, declaring that the +grand masterships of the orders should always be annexed to crown. +These dignities were of great value; not only did they bring in a +princely income, but they practically extended the estates and +patronage of the crown by all the broad lands, cities, and villages, +the offices, honors, and benefices with which the piety and chivalry of +three centuries had endowed the orders. + +When once such foundations had been laid, the crown extended rapidly +its aggressions upon the old powers, privileges, and customs of classes +and local bodies. To the nobility were interdicted the possession of +fortified castles, the practice of private warfare, the use of +artillery, the duel, [Footnote: Mariejol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et +Isabelle, 35.] the use of quasi-royal formulas in their documents, +[Footnote: Cortes de los Antiguos Reinos, IV., 191, 192.] and other +proud old feudal customs. No slight influence was exercised upon the +nobility by the increasing ceremony, size, and expenditure of the +court, to which they came to be attached in positions of nominal +service and honorable dependence, a position altogether favorable to +the supremacy of the monarchs and unfavorable to the independence of +the nobility. + +Side by side with the consolidation of royal power went the creation of +the territorial unity of the Spanish peninsula. The greatest step was +the conquest of Granada. Rich, warlike, and proud, this ancient Moorish +state resisted the persistent attacks of the Catholic sovereigns for +eleven years, from 1481 to 1492. [Footnote: Prescott, Ferdinand and +Isabella, chap. ix.] At least once Ferdinand wearied of the struggle +and the expense, and longed to turn the efforts of the united Castilian +and Aragonese arms eastward, where the natural ambitions of his own +kingdom drew him towards France, Italy, and the islands of the +Mediterranean. [Footnote: Mariejol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et +Isabelle, 63.] Isabella's determination, however, never wavered, and in +1492 Granada opened her gates to her conquerors, the Moorish dynasty +disappeared from Spain, and their mountains and plains were added to +the kingdom of Castile. + +In the very next year Ferdinand reunited to his dominions, by amicable +treaty with the king of France, the two northern provinces of +Catalonia, Cerdagne and Roussillon--which had been detached for thirty +years. There remained Portugal and Navarre. The first of these +independent kingdoms had already attained a degree of national +independence, power, and wealth which prevented its absorption, though +it was in the days of Spain's greatest power to be dragged for eighty +years in her train. Navarre, balanced on the Pyrenees, had long been +drawn alternately to France and to Aragon. In the closing years of the +fifteenth and the opening years of the sixteenth century, neutrality +became impossible; and in 1512 a powerful Spanish army under the duke +of Alva marched into Navarre; its castles and towns capitulated, the +latter under a promise of the maintenance of their privileges; the king +retreated to the trans-Pyrenean part of his kingdom, and Ferdinand +added to his other titles that of king of Navarre. [Footnote: +Boissonade, Reunion de la Navarre a la Castille.] By the time of the +death of Ferdinand, the unity of the peninsula, except for Portugal, +was complete. The immediate successors of the Catholic sovereigns wore +the crowns of all the countries that ever have made part of Spain. + +Just as Spain became territorially one, she was made homogeneous in +race and religion so as ultimately to become a land of one race and one +faith. The Jew and the Moor were both destined to disappear; every +element alien in blood and every element unorthodox in religion to be +driven out of the land. This complete purity of blood and unity of +belief were only attained long afterwards, in a period when Spain had +little else than her orthodoxy to pride herself upon, but they were +well begun in the time of the Catholic sovereigns. + +The Jews were the first to meet with serious persecution. They were +very numerous: in one town, Ciudad Real, an assessment at one time +showed 8828 heads of families, or other adult males of the Jewish race. +[Footnote: Lea, The Moriscos of Spain, 383.] They were famous as +physicians and merchants, and, as in other lands, were often money- +lenders. From time to time waves of religious antagonism swept over the +country, and under the terrible pressure of slaughter and imminent +danger, great numbers of Jews were baptized and became conversos, or +"New Christians." These converts, freed from the disabilities of their +religion and gifted with superior natural abilities, rapidly attained +to high positions in church and state. Intermarriages between the New +Christians and those of Castilian blood were frequent, and many +families of great eminence had Jewish blood in their veins. + +The conversos were under constant suspicion of being Christians only +formally; it was believed that in their hearts they retained their +ancient faith and secretly performed its rites; they were credited with +antagonism to Christianity and suspected of practising sorcery to +destroy the "Old Christians." There was some basis for the first, at +least, of these suspicions. Many doubtless failed to abandon completely +their ancestral ceremonies; and not only they but even some Old +Christians felt the attraction of their mysterious and ancient +traditions. [Footnote: Mariejol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle, +44.] The practice of Jewish rites, known as "Judaizing," under the wide +relationships and high connections of the conversos, long went on +unchecked. In 1475 the pope conferred on his legate in Castile full +inquisitorial powers to prosecute and punish "Judaizing" Christians; +but the mandate was not carried out. [Footnote: Lea, in Am. Hist. Rev., +October, 1895, p. 48.] + +In 1480, however, the Catholic sovereigns requested from the pope +authorization for the appointment by themselves of inquisitors to root +out this heresy. A bull for the purpose was granted them, and on +September 27, 1480, the Spanish Inquisition was established at Seville. +In January, 1481, it began its work, and branches were gradually +established in other centres till it had extended its tribunals to +cover all Castile. Its work proved heavy; in its first eight years the +tribunal of Seville alone put to death seven hundred persons and +condemned five thousand more to severe penalties. [Footnote: Bernaldez, +Hist. de los Reyes, chap. xliv., quoted by Mariejol, L'Espagne, 46.] +One of the great councils of the realm was formed to direct its +operations, at the head of which was the inquisitor-general. The third +in the line of inquisitors-general extended the Inquisition to America. + +The authority of the Inquisition extended only over baptized persons; +and, therefore, Jews who had never given up their religion, although +under many disabilities, were not subject to its jurisdiction; but +immunity to unconverted Jews could not consistently be continued during +a harsh persecution of Judaizing Christians, and from the commencement +of the work of the Inquisition pressure was brought to bear by clergy +and populace upon the sovereigns to force all Jews either to be +baptized or to emigrate. [Footnote: Lea, Religious History of Spain, +437.] The policy of enforced conversion or expulsion was steadily +advocated by the inquisitors; since, if the Jews were baptized they +would come under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition; if they left the +country, Spain would be free from the reproach of harboring heretics. + +Isabella seems to have hesitated to carry out this policy, as well she +might. But the tide of popular hatred rose higher and higher, driven on +by the famous case of El Santo Nino de la Guardia, the reputed murder +of a Christian child by Jews to obtain its heart for purposes of +sorcery. [Footnote: Lea, Religious History of Spain, 437-468.] Finally, +by the edict of March 31, 1492, all Jews were expelled from Spain, as +they had been from England as early as 1290, and successively from many +other states of Europe at intervening periods. [Footnote: Amador de los +Rios, Los Judios de Espana y Portugal, III., 603.] The same year that +saw the discovery of America and the capture of Granada saw the +expulsion of some one hundred thousand Jews and the enforced baptism of +the fifty thousand that remained. [Footnote: Isidore Loeb, in Revue des +Etudes Juives, 1887, p. 182, quoted in Lea, The Moriscos of Spain, 16.] +One great and costly step had been made in the direction of unity of +race and religion in Spain. + +The Moors in Spain were still more numerous than the Jews, though more +concentrated. Through the later mediaeval centuries, in the process of +reconquest, Moorish populations which made formal surrender were +preserved as subjects of the Christian kings; while those that were +taken prisoners in battle were retained as slaves. Both classes, +protected by the laws in their religion and their property, [Footnote: +Las Siete Partidas, pt. i., tit. v., ley 23, etc., quoted in Lea, The +Moriscos of Spain, 2.] frequently still practised their Mohammedan +faith. Practically the whole rural population of the kingdom of +Valencia was Moorish, and in the cities of the southern provinces of +Castile they made a considerable part of the population. In the century +and a half of peace just preceding the war with Granada they increased +steadily in numbers and in economic value to Spain. + +The conquest of Granada, in 1492, brought the population of that +country under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella. The old body of +Moorish subjects of Aragon and Castile, now reinforced by all the +teeming population of the south, made an element of the population of +united Spain of infinite promise. They were skilful, industrious, +temperate, and moral; their agriculture and manufactures were far more +advanced than those of the Christians, and they were more laborious, +thrifty, and peaceable. They might be relied upon to furnish through +taxation a steady and abundant income to the crown, and through their +labor to make the landed estates of the nobles profitable. + +Though treaty guarantees and the permanent material interests of the +new sovereigns alike favored the protection and pacification of the +Moorish inhabitants of Granada, other motives antagonized this policy. +Religious enthusiasm and racial antipathy, as well as immediate greed, +urged a disregard of the terms of capitulation, or, at least, such an +interpretation of them as would drive the Moors either to conversion or +exile. The latitudinarianism of earlier centuries had disappeared. The +whole spirit of the time was now averse to tolerance or anything +approaching local, national, or religious independence. At first, under +Talavera, a sincere, earnest, and partially successful effort was made +to convert the Moors individually to Christianity; but soon a demand +arose and became ever more urgent that the Moors, like the Jews, should +be given the simple and immediate alternative of baptism or exile. In +1500 this policy was adopted in Granada; in 1502, by royal edict signed +by Isabella, it was applied to all the dominions of the Castilian +crown; and in 1525 it was promulgated in Aragon, Valencia, and +Catalonia. As a result many of the Moors emigrated to Africa; the rest +became Moriscos--that is to say, Christians in religion, although Moors +in blood. Thus religious uniformity was attained in Spain. In theory, +at least, every inhabitant of the united kingdom was a Catholic +Christian. But the enforced Christianity required of the Moriscos +produced only an outward and imperfect conformity, and the problem of +this alien element remained long unsolved to plague the Spanish +monarchs, and to bring untold misery on the Moriscos themselves. +[Footnote: Lea, The Moriscos of Spain, chaps. v.-xi.] + +Thus the fragmentary and embryonic group of Iberian nations of the +fifteenth century grew into the powerful Spanish monarchy of the +sixteenth. A single centralized government was created, and the divided +currents of national life were gathered by it into one great stream. +Notwithstanding many survivals of mediaeval conditions and later +reversions to the earlier type, internal warfare and domestic disorder +disappeared from the peninsula, and divergence of foreign policy no +longer weakened its influence in Europe. The absolute monarchy was +founded, and whatever there was of ability, enterprise, and wealth in +Spain came under its control. The sovereign was in a position to give +patronage to voyages of adventure, to legislate for distant dominions, +and to make the most remote Spanish possessions contributory to the +general objects of Spanish policy. + +Spain stood out as one of the greatest states in Europe. With her close +approximation to a united nationality, her all-powerful monarchy, her +highly elaborate bureaucracy, her increasing body of law, soon to be +codified into a great whole, her nascent literature, her military gifts +and resources, the wealth and romance of the Indies, she stood on the +threshold of the sixteenth century with imposing power and dignity. The +part she played during that century was a conspicuous one. Her generals +and her troops became the most famous and the most successful in +Europe. Her diplomatic representatives were able to take the highest +tone and to win most successes among European states, in the +international intrigues of the sixteenth and early seventeenth +centuries. She was rich enough to pension or bribe the ministers and +courtiers of half the courts of Europe, and even to dazzle the eyes and +impose upon the judgment of such a sovereign as James I. of England. +Her literature and her art flourished with her political greatness, and +she had all the external appearance of a great, cultured, and +flourishing nation. + +We know now, as was recognized by some observers even then, that Spain +was a hollow shell. After the reign of Charles V. population stood +stationary, or declined, and wealth decreased. Philip II. enforced +orthodoxy, excluded all non-Catholic literature, and summoned home all +Spanish students in foreign universities, thus dooming Spain to +intellectual stagnation. She exhausted her resources in unwise or +hopeless foreign struggles, like the war of conquest of Italy and the +effort to reconquer the Netherlands; she wasted her peculiar +opportunities by driving from her borders the enterprising Jews and +industrious Moriscos, and by allowing commerce and finance to fall into +the hands of foreigners. But most of these errors were, at the death of +Ferdinand, in 1516, still in the future; and the Spanish monarchy and +nation had much of the reality as well as the appearance of greatness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF CENTRAL EUROPE (1400-1650) + + +America's political and social institutions are unquestionably founded +upon those of England, and these will be described in their proper +place in this volume. But the institutions of three other European +nations were for considerable periods dominant in certain parts of the +New World, and have left an impress that is even yet far from being +effaced. They are those of Spain, France, and Holland. + +Since the Indies were, in theory, an outlying part of the kingdom of +Castile, they naturally reflected the recently achieved absolutism of +the Spanish monarchy. This absolutism in Castile extended over all +fields--legislation, judicial action, and administrative control. +Although the most formal and permanent statutes were drawn up by the +king with the consent of the cortes, or even at its request, yet the +custom of issuing pragmatica, or ordinances enacted by royal authority, +grew until their provisions filled a large sphere. They were +promulgated on all sorts of subjects, and became, immediately on their +issue, authoritative rules of action. The whole subsequent legislation +for the American colonies, springing as it did from the mere will of +the sovereign, was an outcome of this custom. + +The king was the fountain of justice, in whose name or by whose grant +all temporal jurisdiction was exercised. In no country of Europe was +this principle more clearly acknowledged than in Spain. Immediately +attending upon him was an audiencia, or group of judicial officers +whose duty it was to carry out these functions in the most immediate +cases. The audiencia was a high court of law and equity, deciding both +civil and criminal cases; and, as is always the case in early stages of +government, exercising much administrative and financial control +through the forms of judicial action. The insufficiency for these ends +of a peripatetic body bound to follow the king in all his movements was +early recognized, and the royal audiencia was made stationary at +Valladolid. Later a second such court was established, first at Ciudad +Real, then, after the conquest, at Granada. Ultimately others were +organized in Galicia, Seville, Madrid, Burgos, and several additional +centres. The system was early transported and extensively developed in +the American possessions, where twelve independent audience existed. +There, as at home, this court system gradually superseded the more +individual and military rule of the adelantado, which had been +characteristic of the early conquest period. [Footnote: Moses, Spanish +Rule in America, 66, etc] The adelantado was the representative of the +administrative powers of the crown. Five such officials in the +fifteenth century governed respectively the provinces of Castile, Leon, +Galicia, Andalusia, and Murcia; another was appointed over Granada when +it was conquered; and still another administered the temporal affairs +of the vast estates of the archbishopric of Toledo. Their duties were +partly military, partly civil, and under them were subordinate royal +officers with a great variety of titles such as sarjento mayor, alferez +real, alcalde. The title of adelantado was naturally given to Columbus, +Pizarro, and several of the other early conquistadores as the nearest +equivalent to their position as civil and military governors of the +wide-spreading, newly conquered lands of America. [Footnote: Moses, +Spanish Rule in America, 68, 69, 113.] The supremacy of the crown +extended to the church as well as to the state. Spain, in the Middle +Ages and far into modern times, presented the anomaly of a nation and +government most ardently devoted to orthodox Christianity and to the +church, and yet jealous and impatient of the powers of the Pope. In +1482 Isabella protested against the use of a papal provision for the +appointment of a foreign cardinal to a Castilian bishopric, and claimed +a right to be consulted in all ecclesiastical appointments. A serious +contest ensued, the ultimate result of which was that the queen +obtained a clear right of appointment, which, in the reign of Charles +V., was formally recognized as such by the pope. [Footnote: Vicente de +la Fuente, Hist Generate de Espana, V, 150, quoted in Mariejol, +L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle, 28.] + +This position of the monarchs at home made easy and natural the +adoption of their position of supreme patrons of the church in Spanish +America. In the colonies conquered, settled, and Christianized under +their influence they had a completeness of control, not only over +appointments, but over the establishment of new church centres and the +disposition of the titles to ecclesiastical property generally, which +was quite unknown anywhere in Europe. + +The supremacy of the crown in Spain is evidenced in no way more +markedly than by its entire freedom from dependence on the military and +landed classes of the country. Yet the nobility were numerous, rich, +and distinguished. In the sixteenth century there were twelve dukes, +thirteen marquises, and thirty-six counts in Castile, some of whom had +princely estates and power. The heads of such families as that of +Mendoza or Gruzman or Lara or Haro or Medina Celi were among the +greatest men in Europe. Yet the highest of these nobles was still an +immeasurable distance below the king. The option of royal estates, the +seizure of the grand masterships, the enforcement and extension of all +latent powers of the monarchy had freed the Spanish kings from all +danger of control by the great nobility. + +The chief characteristic of the Castilian nobility, however, was not +its wealth, but its numbers. Next in rank to the great nobles, or ricos +hombres, were the caballeros, the knights, and below them was a vast +number of hidalgos, mere gentlemen. In Castile all were accounted +gentlemen who were sons of gentlemen, legitimate or illegitimate; all +those who took up their residence in a city newly conquered from the +Moors, providing themselves with horse and arms without engaging in +trade; those who lived without trade in certain provinces and cities +which had that privilege. Whether rich or poor, those who belonged to +the noble class had many privileges: they paid none of the general +taxes; they were free from imprisonment for debt; they had the +preference in appointments to office in state and church; they had +precedence on all public occasions; and, except in case of treason or +heresy, they had the privilege in case of execution of being +decapitated instead of hanged. [Footnote: Mariejol, L'Espagne sous +Ferdinand et Isabelle, 278-284.] + +These hidalgos and caballeros, many of them poor, living on inadequate +estates, in service to other nobles or in irregular ways in the towns, +furnished promising material for volunteer forces in war, for distant +conquest, and for an expanding government service; but they were weak +elements of economic progress. The conquistadores of Spanish America, +the soldiers in Italy and the Netherlands, and the drones of Spain were +all to be found among the teeming lower Spanish nobility and gentry. +They made admirable soldiers. With all their pride and all their +indolence, Spanish gentlemen were not too proud to fight, even in the +ranks and afoot; or too lazy to endure effort and privation when they +were for a military end. The Spaniards as a race were then, as now, +abstemious, and could make long marches on a slender commissariat. Many +of them were used to the extremes of heat and cold of the mountainous +regions of their native country, and were fitted for the most trying of +long campaigns, All the material was ready to the hand of the king for +use in his European campaigns, or to be let loose for adventure in +America. With this acknowledged position of legislative, judicial, +administrative, and ecclesiastical supremacy at home; with the headship +of a numerous, loyal, and warlike nobility; with the possession of a +numerous trained official class, it was easy for the Spanish monarchs +to impose a centralized and homogeneous system of despotic government +upon the distant and widespread colonies of America. + +The assertion of the absolute authority of the king over the Indies was +never neglected or allowed to lapse. The adventurers who discovered and +explored the West Indies, Central and South America, Mexico, and much +of what is now territory of the United States; the captains who +conquered these lands; the governors who organized and ruled them; the +colonists who occupied them--all drew their permission so to act from +the king, or if they went beyond their commissions quickly legitimated +their actions by an appeal to him for an act of indemnity and a more +adequate commission. Foreigners were by the edict of the king excluded +from the Spanish possessions, or permitted a narrow field of action +there; the policy of the colonies in matters of trade, relations with +the natives, religion, and finance was dictated by the king. Upon the +advice of his Council of the Indies he issued a continuous series of +rules and ordinances, and finally drew up for the American possessions +the "New Laws." + +Yet supreme over her colonies as was the absolute monarchy of Spain, a +false idea of their condition would be obtained if it were forgotten +that the monarchy was only one of the national institutions. Other +political habits of the people were firmly established as well as that +of subserviency to the crown. Spain was the classic land of +participation of all classes in government through the cortes; almost +as old as the monarchy were the fueros, or franchises and charters; +protected by these fueros, the cities and towns had become numerous, +powerful, and almost self-governing; and even rural communities had in +many cases a complicated and semi-independent system of control of +their own affairs. + +The cortes may be neglected here, since no such representative body +ever arose in the colonies; but the same is not true of local self- +governing municipalities. Not only were they characteristic of Spain, +but analogous institutions were established as a Spanish population +grew up and was organized in the Indies, where there was a strong +tendency to revert to practical self-government and thus to defeat the +centralizing policy of the monarchy. + +Several hundred cities, towns, and rural communities in Spain held +fueros granted to them by the king, a great noble, or some +ecclesiastical body. These charters in many cases dated from the +eleventh or twelfth century and conceded the most extensive rights and +privileges. Under them townsmen could surround themselves with a wall, +organize a military force, elect their own magistrates, judge their own +inhabitants, collect their own taxes, pay only a fixed sum to the +crown, and in other ways live almost as a separate political body under +the general protection only of the king. [Footnote: Antequera, Hist. de +la Legislation Espanola, 128-139.] + +Notwithstanding many differences among the towns in size, character, +and political privileges, among those of Castile there was a certain +similarity of organization which may be described as follows, and may +be looked upon as the type on which municipalities in Spanish America +were originally constructed. [Footnote: Bourne, Spain in America, chap. +xv.] + +The citizens who possessed full political rights were known in the most +general sense as vecinos; when acting as electors they were spoken of +as forming the concejo, cabildo, or council. The actual body which met +and directed municipal affairs was the ayuntamiento, made up of the +more important magistrates and officials, of whom there was usually a +considerable number and variety. The alcaldes exercised judicial +functions, both civil and criminal; the regidores had charge of the +administrative work of the community; the corregidores of its oversight +in the interest of the king; the alguazil mayor commanded the military +forces; the mayor domo had the oversight of the town property. In some +towns one or more of the alcaldes had the title of alcalde mayor, and +held a presiding function. There were various lower officials, such as +alarifes, rayones, and others in great variety. [Footnote: Antequera, +Hist. de la Legislation Espanola, App. ix., 542.] The town officials +were in some cases appointed by the king, in others elected by the +vecinos, in still others divided between royal and local appointment. +They were usually drawn from the body of the citizens, but in some +cases from gentlemen or even noblemen who had houses in the town or +simply owned property there. + +This municipal organization and certain other ancient institutions +tended to reappear in the colonies, and thus to modify and limit that +absolutism of the central government which was without doubt the +leading characteristic of the Spanish colonial system. The provincial +interests of the colonists also opposed the monarchy. The great +distance of the colonies from Spain, the rigidity of official custom, +the difference between the interests of the colonists and the desires +of the government, and the lack of vigor at home combined to prevent a +really effective control of the colonies. "Obedezcase, pero no se +cumpla" (Let it be obeyed, but not enforced) was a saying sufficiently +descriptive of the attitude of the colonies towards unpopular decrees +from home. + +The servitude of men of dependent races, which became such a +fundamental characteristic of Spanish America, is an instance of this +incompleteness of control by the central government. Slavery was a +product of American conditions and was not general in the mother- +country. A small number of Moorish slaves captured in war and of +negroes imported through Portugal were scattered through Spain, but +they did not form a class, and were protected rather than depressed by +the law. [Footnote: Lea, The Moriscos of Spain, 2.] + +Slavery in America was always distasteful to the home government, and +only reluctantly permitted because of the apparent necessities of the +case and in the hope of ameliorating the lot of the Indians. The whole +plan of the asiento was based on the principle of regulating and +limiting slavery. The shameful extermination of the native races of the +West Indies is a long, sad history of kindly intentions and wise +regulations on the part of the home government, made nugatory by the +determined self-interest and heartless cruelty of the colonists. +[Footnote: Lea, "The Indian Policy of Spain" (in Yale Review, August, +1899); Bourne, Spain in America, chap. xviii.] The fervor of Las Casas +could readily obtain from the Spanish monarchs proclamations declaring +the freedom of the Indians and even definite statutes providing for +their good treatment; but neither his fervor nor the monarch's power +could secure the enforcement of the laws or save the miserable natives. +[Footnote: Lea, "The Indian Policy of Spain" (Yale Review, August, +1899), 132, 135, 138, 141, 143. etc] + +In theory the Spanish sovereigns ruled the Indies with an autocratic +sway. In practice the colonies were governed by a bureaucracy or, more +commonly, allowed to drift. Yet by the forms of Spanish rule they were +deprived of all wholesome local freedom, of all power of independent +action, and of all deliberate choice of their own policy. They did not, +therefore, develop during their colonial period a robust provincial +life and character; and only late and with great difficulty did they +struggle into independence and obtain self-government. [Footnote: +Paxson, The Independence of the South-American Republics, chap. i.] + +The institutions of France which were transferred to the New World or +which exercised a direct influence on its political development belong +to a period a century or a century and a half later than those of Spain +which have just been described. Yet during that period there had been +no essential alteration in the general direction of political +development in France, and the system which Canada reflected in the +seventeenth century was a more elaborate rather than a different system +from that of the sixteenth. This development had, indeed, been in +progress since the Hundred Years' War, and consisted in the steady rise +of the power of the centralized monarchy. In Spain we have seen a +sudden growth of absolutism and centralization within one reign. In +France the foundation of the absolute monarchy was laid earlier, it was +constructed more uniformly, and the resulting edifice was more firm and +symmetrical. + +The extension of the royal household, the sub-division of the royal +councils, the creation of the parlements, [Footnote: Lavisse, Histoire +de France, V., pt. i., 215.] the appointment of governors of provinces, +bailiffs, and intendants, and the establishment of a complicated +hierarchy of financial and judicial officers and official bodies, +[Footnote: Ibid., V., 247.] were processes which arose from the +fundamental conditions of France and from the genius of her government. +In this development there were periods of rapid growth, as that of +Francis I.; of temporary reaction, as that of the religious wars. Of +the periods of the former none was more important and definitive than +that which was in progress during the years in which Canada was +struggling into existence--that is to say, the reigns of Henry IV. and +Louis XIII., from 1589 to 1643. By the latter date, that of the +accession of Louis XIV., the work was accomplished. France was, in +theory and in practice, a despotism. It was so in theory, for Louis +himself could declare, "All power, all authority, are in the hand of +the king, and there can be none other in the kingdom than those which +be established there." The epigram attributed to that monarch, "L'etat, +c'est moi," was not an exaggerated description of the royal functions, +according to the views of the king and of his most thoughtful +ministers. "The ruler ought not to render accounts to any one of what +he ordains. ... No one can say to him, 'Why do you do thus?'" said +Bossuet. In his copy-book as a child Louis XIV. was taught to write, +"To kings homage is due; they do what they please." In practice the +absolute power was no less a reality, since by royal decree the king +not only made war and peace, determined upon foreign and internal +policy, established religion, and codified law, but also disposed of +the property of his subjects through arbitrary taxation. A systematic +scheme of government, in which all lines should converge upward to the +sovereign, could be drawn more justly for France in the seventeenth +century than for any political structure since the Notitia Dignitatum +was drawn up for the later Roman Empire. + +The royal government was as simple territorially as it was in +functions. It extended over all the territory of France and of the +French possessions beyond the seas. Instead of a collection of +provinces, of some of which the king was direct ruler, of others only +feudal lord, as had been his position in the fourteenth century, he was +now king equally over every one of his subjects in every part of his +dominions. The administration of this territory had been transferred +from its feudal lords to the king by the appointment in the fifteenth +century of governors of the provinces, whose position was almost that +of viceroys. + +An even more effective instrument of royal control was afterwards +created in the form of the intendants. Dating in their beginning from +the middle of the sixteenth century, reintroduced by Henry IV. in his +reconstruction of France after the religious wars, [Footnote: Rambaud, +Hist. de la Civilisation Francaise, I., 537.] these officials were +settled upon by Richelieu in the period between 1624 and 1641 as the +principal agents and representatives of royal power. Eventually each +province had its intendant alongside of the governor, and these thirty- +four officials exercised the real government over France. They were +drawn not from the great nobility, as were the governors, but from the +petty nobility or purely official class; they had no local connections +or interests apart from the crown which they served; they could be +removed at will; they exercised powers only by consent and direction of +the crown; they were, therefore, absolutely dependent. On the other +hand, they were habitually invested with powers of almost unbounded +extent. They could withdraw cases from the ordinary judges and hear and +decide them themselves; they recruited and organized the army; they had +oversight of the churches, the schools, roads, canals, agriculture, +trade, and industries; they must see that peace was kept; and they must +watch over and report on the actions of all other royal officials in +the province, including the governor. It was the intendant who made the +despotic government of the king a reality. John Law declared, in a +letter to D'Argenson, that "this kingdom of France is governed by +thirty intendants." + +This despotism undoubtedly made France great, but it cost a terrible +price. Like all supreme powers, it was jealous, and suffered no other +public institutions to exist alongside of it. In competition with its +power all older bodies became weak. The Estates General did not meet +again after 1614; the parlements humbled themselves; provincial, +municipal, and communal governments dropped into obscurity; the +individual man, unless he was a functionary, lost all habit of +political initiative, independence, or criticism. The mighty machine of +the government was too vast, too complicated, and too distant for the +common man to do aught but submit himself to it and lose much of his +individual force thereby. + +Enforced orthodoxy in religion was a natural outcome of the unity and +symmetry of government; hence, notwithstanding the large number of +Huguenots, the economic value of the Protestant element in the +population, and the tolerance which might be expected from so +enlightened a government, the Edict of Nantes was repealed in 1685, +and, theoretically at least, all the population of France and of the +French possessions were after this time orthodox Catholic Christians, +thus again obtaining uniformity, but at the price of almost irreparable +loss of population and of activity of mind. + +Yet alongside this supreme despotic government had been preserved +certain relics of feudalism. The sovereigns and great ministers who had +humbled the aristocracy did not wish to humiliate it. While depriving +the nobles of all political power they had carefully preserved to them +their social privileges. This was done partly by giving them a favored +position in the administration of the great machine of centralized +royal government, partly by allowing the continuance of old feudal +privileges. To the nobles were reserved all the higher positions in the +army, navy, civil service, administration of the provinces, and in the +church; [Footnote: Rambaud, Hist. de la Civilisation Francaise, II., +75-78.] and the government of French possessions beyond the seas was in +almost all cases given to noblemen. + +Of the feudal privileges of the nobility a number were profitable in +money or gratifying to pride. Every landed noble had some degree of +jurisdiction, frequently that of "high, mean, and petty justice"--that +is to say, the right of trying and settling a large variety of judicial +matters among his tenants; his right of punishment extending in some +cases even to the infliction of the death penalty. He had the right to +receive certain payments upon every sale or lease of the lands of any +inhabitant of his fief; he received fees upon sales of cattle, grain, +wine, meat, and other articles within the limits of his lands; he alone +had the privilege of hunting and fishing or of collecting a fee for +granting the privilege to others; and he alone could keep a dove-cote +or a rabbit-warren; he had the banalites--i.e., the right of requiring +all tenants on his estates to grind their grain at his mill and to bake +at his oven; he had corvees--the right to a certain amount of unpaid +labor from his tenants; his land was exempt from the taille, the most +burdensome of taxes; and he had many other and diverse seigneurial +rights, often, indeed, more vexatious to the tenant than they were +profitable to the seigneur. [Footnote: Rambaud, Hist. de la +Civilisation Francaise, II., 84-90.] These rights of land-holders were +survivals from an earlier period; but they were survivals which still +had great value and considerable vitality. Although permitted to exist +by the absolute monarchy, they were in reality antagonistic to it in +spirit, and might at any time, and actually did, become a serious +disadvantage to it. Among the more primitive surroundings of Canada +these privileges of a landed aristocracy obtained new life and vigor, +and feudalism played a conspicuous if not a leading part in the +troubled history of that colony. [Footnote: Parkman, The Old Regime in +Canada, chaps. xii.-xv.] + +Of the political institutions of Holland not so much need be said, for +New Netherland was a commercial not a political creation, the factory +of a trading company, not a self-governing colony. Yet, under the +general control of the West India Company, municipal institutions were +established at Manhattan, and in the form of the patroonships feudal +powers were granted to large landholders along the Hudson and Long +Island Sound; and in both these cases the models were drawn in large +part from the home land. + +The United Netherlands was a confederation of seven provinces, Holland +being far the most influential. But Holland itself, as was true of the +others, was in many respects a confederation of municipalities. The +peculiar history of the country had been such that from a comparatively +early period the towns and cities had obtained charters from their +overlord, the count of Holland, or from lesser noblemen, granting them +the most extensive rights and privileges. These rights had continued to +be extended till the power of the count within the towns was narrowly +restricted. His representative was the schout, but that official +exercised rather a prosecuting and executing than an independent power, +bringing offenders before a town court, [Footnote: Davies, History of +Holland, I., 77.] and carrying out its judgments. + +The schepens who made up this court, with two or more burgomasters and +a certain number of prominent citizens, organized as a council or +vroedschap, carried on the affairs of the city, making its laws, +exercising its jurisdiction, and administering its finances in almost +entire independence of the central government. [Footnote: Fruin, +Geschiedniss der Staatsinstellingen in Nederland,68, 69.] The +representatives of the larger towns, along with the deputies of the +nobles, also made up the states of Holland, any one city having the +right of veto in any proposed national action. [Footnote: Davies, +History of Holland, I, 85.] Outside of the towns the open country was +either domains of the count, or fiefs held from him by church +corporations or nobles. On the latter many old feudal powers survived +through the sixteenth century. The nobles exercised always low and +sometimes high jurisdiction, they taxed their own tenants, they carried +on private war with other nobles, and they enjoyed an exemption from +the payment of taxes. The feudal conditions in these rural domains and +the highly developed internal organization of the cities seem at first +glance diametrically opposed; but, after all, their relation to the +central government was much the same, the city being treated as a fief +held by its council; [Footnote: Jameson, in Magazine of Am. Hist., +VIII., chap, i, 316.] and as a matter of fact it was these two +institutions which were introduced into New Netherland. [Footnote: +O'Callaghan, Documentary History of New York, I., 385-394.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SYSTEM OP CHARTERED COMMERCIAL COMPANIES + +(1550-1700) + + +The priority of Portugal and Spain in distant adventure did not secure +them from the competition of the other nations of Europe, whose +awakening activity, ambition, and enterprise perceived clearly the +advantages of the New World and of the new routes to the south and +east. Almost within the first decade of the sixteenth century an +Englishman cries out: "The Indies are discovered and vast treasures +brought from thence every day. Let us, therefore, bend our endeavors +thitherwards, and if the Spaniards or Portuguese suffer us not to join +with them, there will be yet region enough for all to enjoy." +[Footnote: Lord Herbert (1511), quoted in Macpherson, Annals of +Commerce, II., 39.] Soon England, France, and the Netherlands were +sending exploring and trading expeditions abroad, and somewhat later +they all aimed at colonial empires comparable with that of Spain. These +colonial settlements were chiefly made for commercial profit and +depended closely on a new and peculiar type of commercial organization, +the well-known chartered companies. It was these companies which +established the greater number of American colonies, and the ideals, +regulations, and administrative methods of corporate trading were +interwoven into their political fabric. + +Revolutions in commerce have been as frequent, as complete, and, in the +long run, as influential as have been revolutions in political +government. Europe in the fifteenth century had a clearly marked and +well-established method of international commerce; yet before the +sixteenth century was over a fundamentally different system grew up, +which was destined not only to characterize trade during the next two +hundred years, but, as has been said, to exercise a deep influence on +the settlement and government of colonies in general and on the policy +of their home governments. + +A complete contrast exists between international trade in 1400 and +1600. The type of commerce characteristic of the earlier period was +carried on by individual merchants; that belonging to the later period +by joint-stock companies. Under the former, merchants depended on +municipal support and encouragement; under the latter they acted under +charters received from national governments. The individual merchants +of the earlier period had only trading privileges; the organized +companies of the later time had political powers also. In the fifteenth +century the merchants from any one city or group of cities occupied a +building, a quarter, or fondaco, in each of the foreign cities with +which they traded; in the seventeenth they more usually possessed +independent colonies or fortified establishments of their own on the +coasts of foreign countries. In the earlier period trading operations +were restricted to Europe; in the later they extended over the whole +world. + +The essential elements of the organization of trade at the period +chosen for this description are its individual character, its +restriction to well-marked European limits, and its foundation upon +concessions obtained by town governments. + +At the beginning of the fifteenth century there were five principal +groups of trading cities, whose merchants carried on probably nine- +tenths of the commerce of Europe. These groups were situated: (1) in +northern Italy; (2) in southern France and Catalonia; (3) in southern +Germany; (4) in northern France and Flanders; (5) in northern Germany. +Two of them were in the south of Europe, and found their most +considerable function in transmitting goods between the Levant and +Europe; the Hanse towns of northern Germany, at the other extremity of +Europe, carried the productions of the Baltic lands to the centre and +south; the Flemish and south German groups, intermediate between the +two, exchanged among themselves and transmitted goods from one part of +Europe to another. There were of course, vast differences of +organization among the trading towns. Venice and Cologne, Barcelona and +Augsburg, Bruges and Lubeck were too far separated in distance, +nationality, the nature of their trade, and the degree of their +development to have the same institutions. And yet there were many +similarities. + +The city authorities obtained for their citizens the privileges of +buying and selling within certain districts and under certain +restrictions, and very frequently of having their own warehouses, +dwelling houses, and selling-places. Examples are to be found in the +fondachi of Venice, Genoa, and other Italian, French, and Catalan +cities, established in the Greek and Mohammedan districts of the +eastern Mediterranean, on the basis of grants given by the rulers of +those lands and cities. Just as characteristic examples can be found in +western Europe; in London the "Steelyard" was a group of warehouses, +offices, dwellings, and court-yards owned jointly by the towns of the +Hanseatic League, and occupied by merchants from those towns who came +to England to trade under the concessions granted them by the English +government. [Footnote: Lappenberg, Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes +zu London.] The south Germans had their fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, +and the north Germans their "St. Peter's Yard" in Novgorod. The +Venetian merchants trading to the city of Bruges usually met for +mercantile purposes in the house of a Flemish family named Van de +Burse, a name which is said to have given the word "bourse" to the +languages of modern Europe. [Footnote: Mayr, in Helmolt, History of the +World, VII., 81.] + +The union among the merchants of any one city or league was one for +joint trading privileges only, not for corporate investment or +syndicated business. Each merchant or firm traded separately and +independently, simply using the warehouse and office facilities secured +by the efforts of the home government, and enjoying the permission to +trade, exemption from duties, and whatever other privileges might have +been obtained for its merchants by the same power. The necessity for +obtaining such concessions arose from the habit of looking at all +international intercourse as to a certain degree abnormal, and of +disliking and ill-treating foreigners. Hence the Germans in London, the +Venetians in Alexandria, the Genoese in Constantinople, for instance, +needed to have permission respectively from the English, the Mameluke, +and the Greek governments to carry on their trade. Although they found +it highly desirable for many reasons to hold a local settlement of +their own in those cities, such a possession was not a necessary +accompaniment of the individual and municipally regulated commerce of +the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Where but a few +traders made their way to any one market, and that only irregularly, +they lodged with natives, sold their goods in the open market-place, +organized no permanent establishment, and had no consulate. On the +other hand, where trade was extensive and constant, the settlement was +like a part of the home land located in the midst of a foreign +population. + +As the fifteenth century progressed many influences combined to bring +about a change in this system. The most important one of these +influences was the growth of centralized states in the north, centre, +and west of Europe. As Russia, Denmark, Sweden, England, Burgundy, and +France became strong, the self-governing cities within these countries +necessarily became politically weak; and the trading arrangements they +had made among themselves became insecure. Strong nationalities were +impatient of the claims of privilege made by foreigners settled or +habitually trading in their cities; the interests of their own +international policy often indicated the desirability of either +favoring or opposing bodies of merchants, which in the time of their +weakness the governments had treated with exactly the opposite policy; +finally, the desire of their own citizens for the advantages of their +own foreign trade often commended itself to the rulers as an object of +settled policy. [Footnote: Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik.] In other +words, national interests and municipal interests were often opposed to +one another. + +Internal difficulties in many cities and internal dissensions in the +leagues of cities helped to weaken the towns as guarantors of the trade +of their citizens. As a result of these political influences, before +the fifteenth century was over the distribution of commerce was much +changed and municipal control was distinctly weakened. The Italian and +the German cities became less active and wealthy, while London, Lisbon, +Antwerp, and many other centres grew richer. Individual cities and even +leagues of cities ceased to be able to negotiate with other +municipalities or with potentates to obtain trading privileges for +their citizens, since such matters were now provided for by commercial +treaties formed by national governments. One of the main +characteristics of earlier commerce, its dependence on city +governments, thus passed away. + +Then came the opening up of direct commerce by sea with the East +Indies, the discovery of America, and the awakening of ambition, +enterprise, and effort on the part of new nations to make still further +explorations and to develop new lines of commerce. The old organization +of commerce was profoundly altered when its centre of gravity was +shifted westward to the Atlantic seaboard, and Europe got its Oriental +products for the most part by an ocean route. Cities which had for ages +had the advantage of a good situation were now unfavorably placed. +Venice, Augsburg, Cologne, and a hundred other towns which had been on +the main highways of trade were now on its byways. Many of these towns +made strenuous, and in some cases and for a time successful, efforts to +conform to the new conditions. [Footnote: Mayr, in Helmolt, History of +the World, VII, 64-66.] Vigorous industry, trade, and commerce +continued to exist in many of the old centres, and some of the most +famous "merchant princes" of history, such as the Fuggers and the +Medici, built up their fortunes in the old commercial cities in the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Nevertheless, these were the +exception rather than the rule, and such successes were due to +financial rather than commercial operations. In a general sense the old +commerce of Europe, so far as it followed its accustomed lines, +suffered a grievous decline. More important than the decay of the old +method was the growth of the new. A vast mass of new trade came into +existence; spices and other Oriental products, now that they were +imported by the Portuguese and afterwards by Spanish, Dutch, French, +and English, by direct routes and by water carriage, were greatly +cheapened in price, and thus made attainable by many more people and +much more extensively consumed. The early explorers of America failed +to find either the route to the East or the Eastern goods which they +sought, but they found other articles for which a demand in Europe +either already existed or was ultimately created. Sea-fish abounded on +the northeastern coasts of America to a degree that partially made up +their loss to the disappointed seekers for a northwest passage. Whale +oil and whalebone were obtained in the same waters. Dye-woods, timber, +and ship stores were found on the coasts farther south. Furs became one +of the most valued and most permanent imports from America. Gradually, +as habits in Europe changed, other products came to be of enormous +production and value. Sugar stands in the first rank of these later +products; tobacco, cocoa, and many others followed close upon it. As +colonists from Europe became established in the New World they must be +provided with European and Asiatic goods, and this gave additional +material for commerce. Besides creating an increased commerce with the +East and a new commerce with the West, the awakened spirit of +enterprise and the new discoveries widened the radius of trade of each +nation. Men learned to be bold, and the merchants of each European +country carried their national commerce over all parts of Europe and +far beyond its limits to the newly discovered lands. English, Dutch, +French, and Danish merchants met in the ports of the White Sea and in +those of the Mediterranean, and competed with one another for the +commerce of the East and the New World. Trading to a distance was the +chief commercial phenomenon of the sixteenth century, and was more +influential than any other one factor in the transformation of commerce +then in progress. Distant trading proved to have different requirements +from anything that had gone before: it needed the political backing of +some strong national government; it needed, or was considered to need, +a monopoly of trade; and it needed the capital of many men. + +These requirements were not felt in Portugal and Spain as they were in +the other countries of Europe, because each of those countries had +control of an extensive and lucrative field of commerce, and because in +them government itself took the direction of all distant trading. The +Portuguese monopoly of the trade with the coast of India and with the +Spice Islands was practically complete. Through most of the sixteenth +century her ships alone rounded the Cape of Good Hope; her only rivals +in trade in the East were the Arabs, who had been there long before +her, and their traffic was restricted to a continually diminishing +field. + +Until Portugal was united with Spain in 1580, and after that until +Holland broke in on the Portuguese-Spanish monopoly of the East Indies +in 1595, her control of Eastern commerce was as nearly perfect as could +be wished. [Footnote: Cunningham, Western Civilization, II., 183-190.] +Government regulation of this commerce extended almost to the entire +exclusion of individual enterprise. The fleets which sailed to the East +Indies were determined upon, fitted out, and officered by the +government, just as those of Venice were. [Footnote: Saalfeld, +Geschichte des Portugessche Kolonialwesens, 138, etc., quoted in +Cunningham, II., 187.] The Portuguese annual fleet sent to the Indies +counted sometimes as many as twenty vessels. In the one hundred and +fifteen years between 1497 and 1612 eight hundred and six ships were +sent from Portugal to India, [Footnote: Hunter, Hist. of British India, +I., 165.] all equipped for the voyage and fitted out by the government +with cannon and provided with armed forces. + +The management of the fleet was in the hands of the government office +known as the Casa da India. The merchants who shipped goods in these +vessels and brought cargoes home in them were, it is true, independent +traders, carrying on their business as a matter of private +enterprise;[Footnote: Cunningham, Western Civilization, II., 187.] but +they were subject to government regulations at every turn and supported +by government at every step. At first foreign merchants were admitted +to the Eastern trade under these conditions, but subsequently it was +restricted to Portuguese, and ultimately became a government monopoly. +Under this system Lisbon became one of the greatest commercial cities +of the world. Venetian, Florentine, German, Spanish, French, Dutch, and +Hanse merchants took up their residence in Lisbon, purchased East +Indian goods from the merchants who imported them, and dealt in other +imports and exports resulting from this activity of trade.[Footnote: +Mayr, in Helmolt, History of the World, VII., 70.] In Spain the +government regulation of commerce was scarcely less close. All goods +which were sent from Spain to America must be shipped from the one port +of Seville, and they must be landed at either one or other of two +American ports--Vera Cruz, in Mexico, or Portobello, on the Isthmus of +Panama. Two fleets were sent from Seville each year, one for each of +these destinations. All arrangements for these fleets, all licenses for +those who shipped goods in them, and all jurisdiction over offences +committed upon them were in the hands of the government establishment +of the Casa de Contractacion at Seville. [Footnote: Veitia Linage, +Spanish Rule of Trade to the West Indies, book I., chap. iii.] No +intruders were allowed in the Spanish colonies; the only persons who +could take part in the trade were merchants of Seville, native or +foreign, who were specially licensed by the government. Monopoly as +well as government support was thus secured to the distant traders +between Spain and her colonies in the West and in the East Indies. + +For two hundred years this system of government fleets in Portugal and +Spain was kept almost intact. Since the government provided merchants +with military defence and economic regulation, since it minimized +competition among them and guaranteed to them a monopoly of commerce in +the regions with which they traded, there was small need of +organization or of a union of forces among them. Consequently +commercial companies are almost unknown in Portuguese and Spanish +history. [Footnote: Moses, Spanish Rule in America, 166-171.] In Spain +and Portugal government control of trade was at a maximum. In the other +countries of Europe, notwithstanding occasional plans for such control, +as in the Netherlands in 1608, [Footnote: Jameson, Usselinx,43.] the +part which government took in commercial matters was much less, the +part taken by private merchants was far greater. In fact, many of the +earliest trading ventures were of an almost purely individual +character. The patent given by Henry VII. to the Cabots in 1497, +similar letters granted in 1502 to certain merchants of Bristol, +[Footnote: Rymer, Faidera (2d ed.), XIII., 37.] a grant to Robert +Thorne in 1527, the long series of authorized expeditions from 1575 to +1632 in search of the northwest passage, the charters given to Humphrey +Gilbert in 1578 and to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, and many other +patents made out in the sixteenth century to prospective colony +builders, all were granted to individuals or to groups of loosely +organized adventurers. [Footnote: Brown, Genesis of the United States, +I., 1-28.] In contrast both with government--controlled commerce and +with purely private trading and enterprise, the chartered companies of +England, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark arose. They were by no +means self-controlled and independent companies; they were dependent on +their governments for many rights and privileges and for constant +support, protection, and subsidy. On the other hand, the governments +expected them not only to develop a profitable trade but to furnish +certain advantages to the nation, such as the creation of colonies, the +increase of shipping, the provision of materials for use in the navy, +the humiliation of political rivals, the preservation of a favorable +balance of trade, and ultimately the payment of imposts and the loan of +funds. They stood, therefore, midway between unregulated individual +trading, in which the government took no especial interest, and that +complete government organization and control of trade which has been +described as characterizing the policy of Portugal and Spain. + +Some fifty or sixty such companies, nearly contemporaneous, and on the +same broad lines of organization, are recorded as having been chartered +by the five governments mentioned above, a few in the second half of +the sixteenth century, the great proportion within the seventeenth +century. [Footnote: Some are enumerated in Cawston and Keane, Early +English Chartered Companies, a still larger number in Bonnassieux, Les +Grandes Compagmes du Commerce.] Of course, some of these companies were +still-born, never having gone beyond the charter received from the +government; some existed only for a few years; and some were simply +reorganizations. The formation of these companies marks a distinct +stage of commercial development, and furnishes a valuable clew to the +foundation and early government of European colonies in America. + +England, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark, as well as Scotland and +Prussia, each had an "East India Company"; Holland, France, Sweden, and +Denmark each had a" West India Company"; England, Holland, and France +each had a "Levant" or "Turkey Company"; England and France each had an +"African Company"; and a date might readily be found in the seventeenth +century when all these were in existence at the same time. The +following list of such companies shows their number and simultaneity. +The list cannot claim to be exhaustive or absolutely accurate, for the +history of many such organizations is extremely obscure, the dates of +their foundations questionable, and some companies chartered at the +time were, perhaps, not commercial in their nature. + +1554. (English) Russia or Muscovy Company. + +1576. (English) Cathay Company (first). + +1579. (English) Baltic or Eastland Company. + +1581. (English) Turkey or Levant Company. + +1585. (English) Morocco or Barbary Company. + +1588. (English) African Company (first). + +1594. (Dutch) Company for Distant Lands. + +1596. (Dutch) Greenland Company. + +1597-1599. (Dutch) East India Companies (early). + +1598-1599. (French) Canadian Companies (early). + +1600. (English) East India Company. + +1602. (Dutch) East India Company. + +1602. (French) Company of New France. + +1604. (French) North African Company (first). + +1604. (French) East India Company (first). + +1606. (English) London and Plymouth Companies. + +1609. (English) Guiana Company. + +1610. (English) Newfoundland Company. 1611. (French) East India Company +(second). + +1612. (English) Bermuda Company. + +1614. (Dutch) Company of the North, or Greenland Company. + +1615. (French) East India Company (third). + +1616. (Danish) East India Company (first). + +1618. (English) African Company (second). + +1619. (Danish) Iceland Company (first). + +1620. (English) New England Company. + +1620. (French) Montmorency Company. + +1621. (Dutch) West India Company. + +1624. (Swedish) Company for Asia, Africa, America, and Magellania. + +1626. (French) Company of Senegal (first). + +1626. (French) Company of Morbihan (first). + +1626. (French) Company of Saint Christopher (first). + +1626. (Swedish) South Sea Company. + +1626. (Swedish) East India Company. + +1628. (French) Company of One Hundred Associates of New France. + +1628. (French) North African Company (second). + +1629. (English) Company of Massachusetts Bay. + +1629. (Dutch) Levant Company (first). + +1631. (English) African Company (third). + +1633. (French) West Africa Company (first) + +1634. (Dutch) Surinam Company. + +1634. (Danish) East India Company (second). + +1635. (English) China or Cathay Company. + +1635. (French) Company of West India Islands. + +1640. (French) Company of East Africa. + +1643. (French) Company of North Cape of South America. + +1644. (French) Company of St. Jean de Luz. + +1644. (French) Baltic Company. + +1647. (Danish) Iceland Company (second). + +1650. (Dutch) Levant Company (second). + +1651. (French) Cayenne Company. + +1655. (French) West Africa Company (second). + +1660. (French) China Company. + +1662. (English) African Company (fourth). + +1664. (French) East India Company (last). + +1664. (French) West India Company (last). + +1664. (English) Canary Company. + +1669. (French) Northern Company (last). + +1670. (French) Levant Company. + +1670. (English) Hudson Bay Company. + +1671. (Danish) West India Company. + +1671. (French) Bordeaux-Canada Company. + +1672. (English) African Company (last). + +1673. (French) Senegal Company (last). + +1683. (French) Acadia Company. + +1684. (French) Louisiana Company. + +1684. (French) Guinea Company. + +1686. (Danish) East India Company (last). + +1697. (French) China Company (last). + +1698. (French) Santo Domingo Company. + +When the English commercial companies were to be chartered, it was not +necessary to invent an entirely new type of organization. A model +already existed ready to hand in the Society of Merchants Adventurers, +of which the origin goes back certainly to the fifteenth century, +perhaps still earlier. [Footnote: Lingelbach, Brief Hist. of the +Merchant Adventurers, xxi.-xxv.] The sphere of trade of this body of +exporting merchants extended along the coasts of France, the +Netherlands, and Germany, opposite England, and some distance into the +interior. [Footnote: Ibid,, xxvi.] It is true that the Merchants +Adventurers had many mediaeval features which assimilated them more to +the old merchant and craft guilds than to the more modern type of +chartered commercial companies which were about to come into existence. +They had, like the craft guilds, a system of apprenticeship and +different degrees of advancement in their membership. [Footnote: +Lingelbach, Internal Organization of the Merchant Adventurers, 8-18.] + +The members were all controlled by a "stint," according to which an +apprentice in the last year of his term might ship one hundred pieces +of cloth in the year; while a full freeman in the society could ship +from four hundred to one thousand pieces a year, according to the +length of time he had been a member. [Footnote: Lingelbach, Laws and +Ordinances of the Merchant Adventurers, 67-74.] They were under strict +regulations against forestalling and undue competition. They could +display and sell their cloth only upon Mondays, Wednesdays, and +Fridays, and "No person shall stand watchinge at the corners or ends of +streetes, or at other mens' Packhouses or at the house or place where +anie clothe merchant or draper ys lodged, nor seeinge anie such in the +street shall run or follow after hym with Intent to Entyce or lead hym +to his packhouse, upon pain of fyve pounds ster." [Footnote: +Lingelbach, Laws and Ordinances of the Merchant Adventurers, 89, 91.] + +In many respects, on the other hand, the Merchants Adventurers were +quite similar to the later chartered companies, whose period of +existence their own overlapped. In fact, considering the early date of +their origin, the tardy development of English economic life, and the +obstacles to trading in a foreign country even so near as the +continental seaboard, the conditions which confronted them were much +the same as those which the later companies had to meet, and they met +them in much the same way. They obtained a charter of incorporation +from the king; they possessed a monopoly of trade in a certain +territory, as against other men of their own nation; they had a common +treasury for joint expenses; and they acted as, and were even called, +"the English nation," in the foreign country which was their abiding- +place. [Footnote: Lingelbach, Internal Organization, 29-34; Laws and +Ordinances, passim; and Charters of 1462 and 1564.] The Merchants +Adventurers, therefore, might be looked upon as a late surviving +mediaeval merchant guild, modified in form by the necessity of adapting +itself to trading in a foreign country; or it might be considered as +the earliest of the modern chartered commercial companies, still +retaining in the seventeenth century some of its mediaeval features. +Viewed in either aspect, the Merchants Adventurers were a living model +for the organization of the new type of companies, and the powers and +form of government of the latter show a similarity to the older company +which is certainly not accidental. + +The five or six English companies whose dates of foundation lie within +the sixteenth century all yield in importance, interest, and later +influence to the East India Company, which was destined to an almost +imperial existence of two centuries and a half, and which may well +serve as the representative of the English chartered companies. Its +origin was closely connected with the international relations of the +last decades of the sixteenth century. + +The availability of the port of Lisbon as the western distributing +centre for Eastern goods ceased in 1580, when Portugal became a part of +the dominions of the king of Spain. As war already existed between +Spain and the Netherlands, and was soon to break out between Spain and +England, commerce was much disturbed; and after a few years of troubled +intercourse that port was closed to the merchants of Holland and +England. The union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal at this time had +much the same effect on the supply of Eastern goods to these two +Protestant seaboard states that the conquests of the Turks in the +eastern Mediterranean had had for the Italian cities a century before. + +It was not likely that the two most vigorous, free, and commercially +enterprising states of Europe would allow themselves long to be +excluded from the most attractive and lucrative trade in the world. +After England, in her resistance to the Armada in 1588, applied the +touchstone to the naval prestige of Spain and showed its hollowness, +her merchants and mariners took heart and pressed directly to the East. +In 1591 an English squadron of three ships, under Captains Raymond and +Lancaster, with the queen's leave, sailed down the western coast of +Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, followed the east coast to +Zanzibar, and then passed across to Cape Comorin, Ceylon, and the Malay +peninsula. They had mixed fortune, but one vessel returned home laden +with pepper, obtained for the most part from the hold of a Portuguese +prize. In 1595 the first direct Dutch voyage was made along much the +same route. Other English and Dutch voyages followed; and in 1600 and +1602, respectively the English and Dutch East India companies were +chartered. The following analysis of the charter of the former of these +companies will give the main characteristics of the new commercial +system: [Footnote: Charters Granted to the East India Company, 3-26,] + +1. The charter, granted by Queen Elizabeth on December 31, 1600, was +addressed by name to the earl of Cumberland and two hundred and fifteen +knights and merchants, whom it created a corporation and a body politic +under the name of "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London +Trading to the East Indies." + +2. The territory to which they were given privileges of trade consisted +of all continents and islands lying between the Cape of Good Hope and +the Straits of Magellan--that is to say, the east coast of Africa, the +southern shore of Asia, the islands of the Indian Ocean, and the west +coast of America; so long as they made no attempt to trade with any +port at the time of the charter in the possession of any prince in +league with Elizabeth, who should protest against such trade. + +3. The corporation was for all time; but the privileges of trade under +the charter were granted for fifteen years, with a promise, if they +should seem profitable to the crown and the realm, to extend them for +fifteen years more; and with a reservation, on the other hard, of the +power to terminate them on two years' notice. + +4. The powers of the company were those of an ordinary corporation and +body politic. The members of the company and their employees possessed +a complete monopoly of trade in the regions described, so far as +English subjects were concerned, having, moreover, the right to grant +licenses to non-members to trade within their limits. + +5. They could buy land without limitation in amount, and as a matter of +fact the company gained its first foothold in each of its stations in +the East by buying a small piece of land from the native government. + +6. The company could send out yearly "six good ships and six pinnaces +with five hundred mariners, unless the royal navy goes forth," and +these ships should not be seized even in times of special naval +restraint, unless the queen's need was extreme and was announced to the +company three months before the ships were impressed. + +7. They had the right, in assemblies of the company held in any part of +the queen's dominions or outside of them, to make all reasonable laws +for their government not in opposition to the laws of England, and they +could punish by fine and imprisonment all offenders against these laws. +8. Nothing is said in the original charter of the powers of offence and +defence, alliance and military organization; but these were probably +taken for granted, as they were so generally used by merchants and +navigators at the time, and were, as a matter of fact, exercised +without limitation by the company from its first voyage. + +9. Especial privileges and exemptions were granted to the company by +freeing its members from the payment of customs for the first four +voyages, by giving them from six to twelve months' postponement of the +payment of subsequent import duties, and by allowing them re-export of +Indian goods free from customs duties. The laws against the export of +bullion were also suspended in their favor to the extent of allowing +them to send out on each voyage 30,000 pounds in coin. + +10. The organization of this company was comparatively simple, +consisting of a governor, deputy governor, and twenty-four members of a +directing board, "to be called committees," [Footnote: The word +"committee" at that time was used for a single person, as in the case +of "trustee," "nominee," "employee," and similar terms] all to be +elected annually in a general assembly or court of the company. The +governor and committees must all take the oath of allegiance to the +English sovereign. + +The East India Company remained for some years a somewhat variable +body, as each voyage was made on the basis of a separate investment, by +different stockholders, and in varying amounts. But in 1609 the charter +was renewed, and in 1612 a longer joint-stock investment fixed the +membership more definitely. By this time the company had become, in +fact, as permitted by its charter, a closely organized corporation, +with well-understood and clearly defined rights and powers, and it was +soon started on its career of trade, settlement, conquest, and +domination. [Footnote: Hunter, "Hist of British India," I, 270-305.] A +new type of commercial organization had become clearly dominant. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TYPICAL AMERICAN COLONIZING COMPANIES (1600-1628) + + +An exactly typical chartered commercial company, which combined all the +characteristics of such companies, of course did not exist. The +countries with which they expected to trade ranged all the way from +India to Canada; the political services which their governments imposed +upon them varied from the production of tar, pitch, and turpentine to +the weakening of naval rivals; while the personal qualities of the +founders of the companies, and the sovereigns or ministers who gave the +charters differed widely. Moreover, the later development of many of +these companies had but little to do with the settlement of America. +Nevertheless, three companies may be chosen which exerted a deep +influence on American colonization, and which, with the English East +India Company described in the last chapter, are fairly typical of the +general system. These are the English Virginia Company, the Dutch West +India Company, and the French Company of New France. + +The charter of 1606 granted to the London and Plymouth companies was of +an incomplete and transitional character; [Footnote: H. L. Osgood, "The +Colonial Corporation" (Political Science Quarterly, XL, 264-268). This +charter is printed in Stith, Hist, of Virginia, App. I.; in Brown, +Genesis of the United States, and elsewhere.] the second Virginia +charter, [Footnote: Printed in full in Stith, Hist, of Virginia, App. +II., and, with a few omissions, in Brown, Genesis of the United States, +I., 208-237.] however, which was granted at the request of the company, +May 23, 1609, created a corporate trading and colonizing company +closely analogous to the East India Company, as will appear from the +following analysis: 1. The company was chartered under the name, "The +Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London +for the First Colony in Virginia." It was fully incorporated, with a +seal and all legal corporate powers and liabilities. In the charter +itself were named some twenty-one peers, ninety-six knights, eighty-six +of the lesser gentry, a large number of citizens, merchants, sea- +captains, and others, and fifty-six of the London companies--in all, +seven hundred and fifteen persons and organizations. They included a +large proportion of the enlightenment, enterprise, and wealth of the +capital, and, indeed, of all England. The grant was made to the company +in perpetuity, although, as will be seen, some of its special +exemptions and privileges were for a shorter term only. + +2. The region to which the grant applied was the territory stretching +four hundred miles along the coast, north and south from Chesapeake +Bay, and "up into the land, from sea to sea westward and northward." + +The possession of the soil was given to the company by the most +complete title known to the English law, but with the requirement that +it be distributed by the company to those who should have contributed +money, services, or their presence to the colony. + +3. Its commercial powers extended to the exploitation of all the +resources of the country, including mines, fisheries, and forests, as +well as agricultural products; and to the requirement that all +Englishmen not members of the company should pay a subsidy of five per +cent, of the value of all goods brought into or taken out of the +company's territory, and all foreigners ten per cent, of the value of +the goojis. The company might send to Virginia all shipping, weapons, +victuals, articles of trade, and other equipment that might be +necessary, and also all such colonists as should be willing to go. + +4. Powers of government in its territory were granted to the company +with considerable completeness, the charter declaring that it might +make all orders, laws, directions, and other provisions fit and +necessary for the government of the colony, and that the governor and +other officers might, "within the said precincts of Virginia or in the +way by sea thither and from thence, have full and absolute power and +authority to correct, punish, pardon, govern, and rule" all the +inhabitants of the colony, in accordance with its laws already made. + +As to offensive and defensive powers, it had the right to repel or +expel by military force all persons attempting to force their way into +its territories and all persons attempting any hurt or annoyance to the +colony. The governor might exercise martial law in the colony, and was +provided with the general military powers of a lord-lieutenant of one +of the English counties. Thus the company and its colony were organized +not exactly as an imperium in imperio, but at least as an outlying +imperium. + +5. As for special subsidies and privileges, the government of King +James was scarcely in a position to make money contributions for such +an enterprise, or to give to it ships such as the continental +governments might give to their companies; but for seven years the +company was allowed to take out all that was necessary for the support, +equipment, and defence of its colonists, and for trade with the +natives, free of all tax or duty; and for twenty years it should be +free from customs on goods imported into Virginia, and should forever +pay only five per cent import duty on goods brought from Virginia to +England. Among privileges of less material value, but long after +remembered for other reasons, the charter promised to the company that +all the king's subjects whom it should take to inhabit the colony, with +their children and their posterity, should have and enjoy all +liberties, franchises, and immunities of free-born Englishmen and +natural subjects of the king just as if they had remained or been born +in England itself. + +6. The duties to be performed by the company as respects the government +were very few. In recognition of the socage tenure on which the land +was held, a payment of one-tenth of all gold and silver was required; +and the members of the council of the company were required to take an +oath of allegiance to the king in the name of the company. The main +requirement from the company was colonization. It was fully +anticipated, and in the preamble expressed, that the process of taking +out settlers should be a continuous one; and a failure to transport +colonists by the company's efforts would certainly have been a failure +to fulfil the conditions of its charter. + +7. Although there was no requirement of absolute conformity with the +established church of England, yet on the ground of the desire to carry +only true religion to the natives it was made the duty of the officials +of the company to tender the oath of supremacy to every prospective +colonist before he sailed, and thus to insure the Protestantism of the +settlers. + +8. The form of government of the company in England received much +attention in the charter, as well it might, after the failure of the +arrangements of the former charter. The membership, quarterly +assemblies of the general body of the members, more frequent meetings +of a governing council of fifty-three officers, and their duties, were +all minutely formulated; and the supremacy of this council, so +consonant with the ideas of King James, and so opposed to the needs and +the tendencies of the times, was carefully but, as it proved, +unsuccessfully provided for. [Footnote: Osgood, "The Colonial +Corporation" (Political Science Quarterly, XI., 369-273).] The charter +of the Dutch West India Company was granted by "The High and Mighty +Lords, the Lords States-General of the United Netherlands," June 3, +1621. It had already been under discussion in the various +representative bodies of the Netherlands for fifteen years, and had +been a fixed idea in the brain of its projector, William Usselinx, for +at least fourteen years before that, [Footnote: Jameson, Usselinx, 21, +28, 70.] advocated in a dozen pamphlets and a hundred memorials and +communications, written and oral, to the States-General; and it had the +advantage of the state's experience with the Dutch East India Company. +The shape given to the West India Company in its charter was not, +therefore, merely an outcome of the plans of an individual, but a +resultant also of the influence of the earlier commercial companies, of +the political conditions of the time, and of the ambitions, economic +and political, of the influential merchant-rulers of the Netherlands. +[Footnote: Ibid, 2-4.] + +1. The company was given for twenty-four years, during which no +stockholders could withdraw and no new subscriptions would be received, +the monopoly of the Dutch trade on the west coast of Africa, from Cape +Verd to the Cape of Good Hope; in all the islands lying in the Atlantic +Ocean; on the east coast of America from Newfoundland to the Straits of +Magellan; and even beyond the straits on its west coast, and in the +southern lands which at that time were still believed to stretch from +Cape Horn across the South Pacific to New Guinea. All the non-European +regions of the globe were thus divided by the States-General, with even +greater boldness than by Pope Alexander, between the East and West +India Dutch chartered companies. + +2. Its commercial privileges included a general monopoly and extended +to all forms of advancement of trade. + +3. As to colonization, the charter provided that the company "may +advance the peopling of fruitful and unsettled parts." Usselinx, the +original author and the persistent advocate of the plan, would gladly +have made more adequate provision for the establishment of colonies, +the stimulation of agriculture and mining, good government in these +colonies, their religious life, and the conversion of the natives. He +had a picture in his mind of a great commercial dominion, settled from +Holland and other countries, forming a market for European +manufactures, and producing colonial goods for the use of the +Netherlands. [Footnote: Jameson, Usselinx, 43.] But the charter was +granted in war time, and by a body of aristocratic traders, who, as +Bacon says, "look ever to the present gain"; so that the capture of +Spanish plate-fleets and the sacking of West Indian settlements are +contemplated with as much assurance and interest as are colonization +and more legitimate commerce. + +4. In view of later disputes between England and her colonies, it is +worthy of note that even such an enlightened advocate of a prosperous, +self-governing colonial empire as Usselinx should have insisted, in +1618, that the colonists were to pay taxes to the home government, to +trade with the Netherlands only, and to have no manufactures that would +compete with those of the mother-country. [Footnote: Ibid., 63] + +5. The political or semi-public powers of the company, according to the +charter, were very extensive: it could form alliances and make war, so +long as the war was defensive or retaliatory, could build forts, +maintain troops, appoint officers, capture prizes, and arrest offenders +on the high seas. + +6. By way of subsidy the company was given one million florins, the use +of sixteen government ships and four yachts, and exemption from all +tolls and license dues on its ships. + +7. The duties required of the company were an oath of fidelity to +Prince Maurice, the stadtholder, and to the States-General, on the part +of its officers; the provision of a number of vessels equal at least to +those provided by the government; the return of its ships whenever +practicable to the ports from which they had set out; the preservation +for military purposes of all prizes captured from enemies of the +States-General; the periodical publishing of accounts; and the +division, after six years, of all surplus over ten per cent, in such a +way that, in addition to what the shareholders received, one-tenth +should go to the States-General and one-thirtieth to Count Maurice. + +The government of the Dutch West India Company was very complicated, +reflecting the political arrangements of the Netherlands and the +jealousies of a merchant aristocracy distributed in provinces and +cities. There was a governor-in-chief of the company's colonial +possessions, but his powers were dependent on a general board of +nineteen directors, who were the supreme authority in the regulation of +the company's affairs. Below this central body were five territorial +chambers, with a combined membership of seventy-eight. The numbers, +powers, and influence on the policy of the company of these chambers +were in proportion to the wealth of the cities they represented and to +the amount of the stock subscribed from these cities. The Amsterdam +chamber, which was to subscribe one-half the capital stock, was far the +most influential and had the largest number of directors; after it in +order came the chambers of Zealand, of the cities on the Meuse, of the +cities of North Holland, and of the cities of Friesland and Groningen. +These local boards elected the general board, one-third of their +number, chosen by lot, retiring each year. [Footnote: Jameson, +Usselinx, 33, 34.] + +When Richelieu became prime-minister of France in 1624, one of the +earliest definite lines of policy he initiated was the formation of +privileged commercial companies. [Footnote: Edict of Reformation of +1627, art. 429; Isambert, Recueil General des Anciennes Lois +Francaises, XVI., 329.] He saw with great clearness and formulated in a +state paper [Footnote: Michaud et Poujoulat, Memoires, I., chap, +xviii., 438.] the reasons for recognizing the superiority for distant +commerce, under the conditions of that period, of chartered companies +over individual traders. He was also much impressed with the power and +success of the great East India companies of England and Holland. His +first plan was a general French company of commerce, to include all the +outlying sections of the world, and at least two such companies were +chartered in succession. They came to nothing, and soon gave place to +companies authorized each to carry on commerce with a specified part of +America, Africa, Europe, or Asia.[Footnote: Pigeonneau, Hist. du +Commerce, II., 426-431.] The most important of these was the company of +Canada, chartered in 1628 on the plans of Champlain, and intended to +take the place of all earlier companies and individual grantees having +privileges in that region. The chartered powers and privileges of this +company may be analyzed as follows: + +1. The region to which they extended was "the fort and settlement of +Quebec, with all the country of New France, called Canada." [Footnote: +Isambert, Recueil General, XVI., 216-222.] It was described as +extending along the Atlantic coast from Florida to the arctic circle, +and from Newfoundland westward to the sources of the farthest rivers +which fell into the St. Lawrence or the "Fresh Sea." + +2. The power of the company over the soil was complete. It was allowed +to sell or dispose of it in such portions and on such terms as it +should see fit, except that if it should grant great fiefs such as +duchies or baronies, letters of confirmation to the grantees should be +sought from the crown. + +3. The continuance of the company in its full form with all powers and +duties was to be for fifteen years, while for other purposes its life +was to be perpetual. + +4. Its commercial privileges extended during this term of fifteen years +to the complete monopoly of all kinds of commerce by sea or land, all +former grants being withdrawn; and the company was empowered to +confiscate any French or other vessels coming to trade within its +dominions. The value of Canada as a source of supply for furs was +already known, and the fur trade was placed under the special control +of the company forever. The whale and seal fisheries, on the other +hand, were exempted from its control, even for the fifteen years, and +left free to all Frenchmen. + +5. As a form of subsidy the king agreed to give the company two war- +vessels of two hundred to three hundred tons, armed and equipped for a +voyage; but they were to be victualled, supported, and, in case of +loss, replaced by the company. He also presented them with certain +cannon formerly the property of the East India Company. The nature of +these gifts seems to intimate the possibility of warlike expeditions of +the company against the king's enemies and its own, and prizes are +referred to repeatedly as a possible source of income. + +6. All goods of all kinds brought from New France were to be exempted +for fifteen years from all duties and imposts; and all victuals, +munitions of war, and all other necessaries exported from France to the +colony should be likewise exempt. Other privileges were permission to +nobles, clergymen, and officers to join the company without derogation +from their rank, and an agreement to ennoble twelve prominent members +of the company; full naturalization as French citizens of all colonists +and converted natives; and the advancement of all artisans who should +pursue their trades in the colony for six years, to full mastership in +their respective occupations. + +7. The duties the company was bound to fulfil in return for these +concessions were primarily those of colonization. The company engaged +to take over to New France two or three hundred colonists of both sexes +within the year 1628, and altogether four thousand within fifteen +years; to lodge, feed, and provide them with the necessaries of life +for three years after their emigration; and then to assign to them +enough cleared land for their support and enough grain to sow it and to +feed them till the first harvest. These provisions showed a clear +insight into the difficulties of settlement of a new country, but they +also imposed upon the company a crushing burden of expense which +required true Gallic optimism to contemplate with any assurance of +success. + +8. Next to peopling of the colony came the conversion of the heathen. +Indeed, this object, with proper piety, was placed in the forefront of +the edict creating the company. In each settlement the company was +bound to provide at least three priests and give them support for +fifteen years, or else provide them with cleared land sufficient for +their support. After the expiration of the fifteen years, and for +further missionary efforts, the religious needs of the colony were +commended to the charity and devotion of the company and the colonists. + +9. It was required that all colonists should be natural-born Frenchmen +and Catholics. The absolute orthodoxy of this colony from its inception +was in striking contrast with the freedom from religious restriction of +the colonies planned by Coligny before the civil wars had forced the +government to introduce rigorous conformity. + +10. The company's rights over the colony were great: they could appoint +officers of sovereign justice, who should be commissioned by the crown; +and nominate military officials by sea and land over ships, troops, and +fortresses, the king agreeing to appoint their nominees. They were +empowered to build forts, forge cannon, make gunpowder, and do all +things necessary for the security of the colony and its commerce. + +11. The charter contained no provisions for the internal government of +the company, simply recognizing the existing voluntary organization of +one hundred associates, whom it describes as a "strong company for the +establishment of a colony of native Frenchmen." As far as membership +extends, they were allowed to join to themselves any additional number +up to another hundred. + +Thus was organized the company which, through the genius of Champlain +and with much tribulation, laid the foundations of the colony of +Canada. + +Considering as types these four companies dating from 1600, 1609, 1621, +and 1628, and representing England, Holland, and France, a comparison +of their main characteristics leads to the following generalizations: + +1. It is evident that there was in early modern times a movement for +the organization and chartering of companies for distant commerce, +closely dependent on their respective governments. These companies had +their period of rise in the sixteenth century; a rapid and wide-spread +development in the seventeenth; and a subsequent decline and discredit +in the eighteenth. The movement was European; every country whose +situation or ambitions would at all admit of distant trading, and whose +system of commerce was not, like that of Spain and Portugal, already +stereotyped under government control, adopted approximately the same +policy. + +2. To each of these companies was secured by its charter the monopoly +of trade in a particular region. Its members alone had power or right +to carry on commerce with a specified people, over a specified extent +of coasts or lands, and during a definite period of years. This +monopoly might be only as against the fellow-countrymen of the members +of the company; but an effort, generally successful, was made to +exclude all other Europeans from each reserved field of commerce. + +3. The companies were based on unions of the capital of many merchants +or other adventurers. An official Dutch letter on the trade with +America speaks of "knowing by experience that without the common +assistance of a general company navigation and commerce could not be +practised, maintained, and defended in the regions and quarters +designated above, because of the great risks from corsairs, pirates, +and other extortions which are met with upon such voyages." [Footnote: +Letters to the Dutch West India Company, June 9, 1621.] The preliminary +equipment of ships, the purchase of supplies and merchandise, the +acquisition of land, the building of forts and the supply of weapons +and military material; the payment of a military force to protect their +commerce against natives or interloping Europeans; the expenses, in +many cases, of transporting and supporting colonists; and, finally, the +long waiting before returns could be reasonably hoped for--some or all +of these expenses were inseparable from the whole plan of establishing +distant trade. It was no wonder that individual traders gave place to +great unions of the merchants of London, Amsterdam, or Dieppe, who +risked part of their means and united their resources to form companies +to trade with the East and West Indies, Africa, and other outlying +parts of the world. + +4. Neither the possession of a monopoly nor the creation of a large, +joint capital was considered enough to launch an enterprise of this +kind. The grant of public or political powers by government was +necessary to make its economic objects attainable, and these were given +with a free hand. The companies very generally received, explicitly or +by implication, rights of peace and war, of supreme justice, of +administrative independence, and of legislation for their own +territory, members, and servants. A chartered company was in many cases +the holder from the crown of a wide fief in which it possessed more +than feudal powers. As a matter of fact, the companies generally +remained quite dependent on the home authorities, but this resulted +from the desire to save expense, from the supremacy of commercial +ideals, or from patriotism, rather than from deficiencies in their +charters. + +5. In the grant of these extensive political powers the home +governments had ulterior motives. The seventeenth century was a period +of intense international rivalry, and the chartered commercial +companies were pieces in the game. It was not mere profit in pounds, +shillings, and pence which Elizabeth hoped to obtain from the voyages +of the ships of the East India Company, but a weakening of the power +and wealth and colonial dominion of Spain. Even in the more peaceful +times of James, the Spaniards saw, and were justified in seeing, in the +popular interest in Virginia another phase of the national hatred of +Spain. [Footnote: Letters from Zuniga to Philip III, in Brown, Genesis +of the United States, docs, xxviii.-xxxiii., etc.] It was at the close +of the twelve years' truce between the Netherlands and Spain, just when +the war was being resumed, that the Dutch West India Company was +formed, and its greatest activity was in a warlike rivalry with its +great opponent in South America. "The reputation of this crown" was +combined with "the glory of God" in the charter of the Canada Company; +and most of the commercial and colonizing projects of France in the +seventeenth as in the nineteenth century, had a large element of +political pride behind them. Sometimes it was warlike conquest, +sometimes the expulsion of a rival, sometimes the acquisition of a new +base of operations, sometimes the obtaining of a more favorable balance +of trade, sometimes mere international rivalry; but whatever the other +elements, there were always some political objects in addition to the +hope of obtaining dividends from trade. + +6. For the history of America, the most important characteristic common +to the chartered companies of the seventeenth century is the +territorial foothold they obtained in the regions where they possessed +their monopolies. It might be only a few acres of ground used for a +fort, storehouses, and dwellings, which was all the English East India +Company possessed for the first century and a half of its existence; or +it might be the almost limitless domains of the Canada or Virginia +Company. There was no distinction between two kinds of companies, one +for commerce, the other for colonization, but simply one of relative +attention given to the two interests, according to the character of the +regions for which the companies had obtained their concessions. All the +companies expected to carry on commerce; all expected to plant some of +their fellow-countrymen on the soil of the country with which they +meant to trade. If the region of their activity was the ancient, +wealthy, thickly settled, and firmly governed coast of India, the +settlers were only a few servants of the company. If, on the other +hand, the region for which the monopoly of the company was granted was +a broad and temperate tract, occupied by a sparse population of +savages, and offering only such objects of trade or profit as could be +collected slowly or wrested by European labor from, the soil or the +forest, the quickest way to a commercial profit was the establishment +on the distant soil of a large body of colonists from the home land. + +This necessity for colonization in order to carry out their other +objects makes the chartered commercial companies of the seventeenth +century fundamental factors in American history. The proprietary +companies of Virginia, Massachusetts, New Netherland, Canada, and other +colonies were primarily commercial bodies seeking dividends, and only +secondarily colonization societies sending over settlers. This +distinction, and the gradual pre-dominance of the latter over the +former, is the clew to much of the early history of settlement in +America. The commercial object could only be carried out by employing +the plan of colonization, but new motives were soon added. The +patriotic and religious conditions of the times created an interest in +the American settlements as places where men could begin life, anew +with new possibilities. Hence the company, the home government, +dissatisfied religious bodies, and many individuals, looked to the +settlements in America with other than a commercial interest. The +policy of the companies was modified and eventually transformed by the +influence of these non-commercial interests. + +As financial enterprises, the chartered commercial companies were +subject to such great practical difficulties that few of them survived +for any great length of time or repaid their original investment to the +shareholders. Some were reorganized time and again, each time on a more +extensive scale, and each time to suffer heavier losses. [Footnote: W. +R. Scott, "The Royal African Company" (Am. Hist. Review, VIII., 2).] +They experienced much mismanagement and softie peculation and fraud on +the part of their directors; in some cases false dividends were +declared for the purpose of temporarily raising the value of the stock. +Their credit was bad, and they sometimes had to borrow money at fifty +and even seventy-five per cent, interest. [Footnote: Bonnassieux, Les +Grandes Compagnies de Commerce, 494, etc.] + +They encountered other difficulties quite apart from the incompetency +or dishonesty of their directors. Parliaments and States-General were +opposed to monopolistic and privileged companies, and threw what +obstacles they could in their way; and political exigencies often +forced even the sovereigns who had given them their charters to disavow +and discourage them. [Footnote: Letter of October 8, 1607, from Zufiiga +to the king of Spain, in Brown, Genesis of the United States, I., 121.] +Their greatest difficulties, how-ever, arose from the very nature of +the problem which they were trying to solve. Distant commerce with +barbarous races, amid jealous rivals, carried on with insufficient +capital; the persuasion of reluctant emigrants to establish themselves +in the wilderness at a time when the mother-country was not yet +overcrowded; the long waiting for returns and the failure of one dream +after another--it was these difficulties in the very work itself that +led to the failure of most of the companies and the scanty success of +the others. + +Nevertheless, the companies played a very important part in the +advancement of civilization during the period of their existence. They +enriched Europe with many products of the New World and the more +distant Old World, which could hardly have reached it, or reached it in +such abundance, except for the organized voyages of the chartered +companies. The formation of chartered companies relieved certain +nations of their dependence upon other nations for some of the +necessities and many of the luxuries of life. National independence was +furthered, at the same time that foreign products were made much +cheaper. Spices, sugar, coffee, tea, chocolate, tobacco, cotton, silk, +drugs, and other articles were made accessible to all. New shipping was +built by the companies and additional commercial intercourse created. +[Footnote: Bonnassieux, Les Grandes Compagnies de Commerce, 514.] New +territories were made valuable and new centres of activity created in +old and stagnant as well as in new and undeveloped countries. Above +all, the chartered companies were the actual instruments by which many +colonies were founded, and a strong impress given to the institutions +of these colonies through all their later history. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION ON THE CONTINENT + +(1500-1625) + + +In analyzing the forces which affected the colonization of America, the +depth of the impression made upon Europe by the Protestant Reformation +can hardly be overestimated. Although the direct and immediate +influence of this great movement upon the fortunes of America was +great, its indirect and remote effects have been still more important. +One of these effects was the creation of a religious motive for +emigration which, in conjunction with other incentives, was one of the +earliest and most constant causes for the peopling of America. + +It is true that the desire for religious freedom was only one among +many such impelling forces. The desire to better their fortunes was +perhaps the most fundamental and enduring consideration that influenced +emigrants. Many settlers came because at home they had failed or were +burdened with debt, or had become involved in ill repute or crime, and +hoped to make a new start in a new land. Many sought the New World as +many still press to the frontier, from sheer restlessness and +recklessness, from the love of adventure, the hope that luck will do +better for them than labor. Many came as a result of urgent inducements +offered by projectors of colonies or agents of shipmasters, as in the +case of the early "company servants" or the later "redemptioners" or +"indentured servants." + +No inconsiderable number came because they were forced to come: the +earlier planters of colonies and patentees of lands received permission +to seize for their uses men and women of the lower classes, much as men +were pressed into naval service; paupers were handed over to the +colonizing companies to be shipped to their settlements; repeatedly the +prisons were emptied to provide colonists, and commissions were +appointed, as in England in 1633, "to reprieve able-bodied persons +convicted of certain felonies, and to bestow them to be used in +discoveries and other foreign employments." [Footnote: Cal. of State +Pap, Domestic, 1631-1633, p. 547.] + +Somewhat later, transportation to the colonies to labor for a fixed +number of years became a familiar form of commutation of the death +penalty, and after 1662 it was made the statutory penalty for certain +offences. + +Yet among this multiplicity of motives for emigration to the colonies +religion held a peculiar place. Many men for whom the dominant +inducement was a more material one were partly led by religious +motives; many of the changes in Europe that unsettled men and made them +more ready to leave their old homes were results of the Reformation. +Religious motives were the earliest to send any really large body of +settlers to the English colonies, and they remained for more than a +century probably the most effective motives. + +During the first twenty years of the settlement of Virginia, where the +religious incentive was least strong, less than six thousand settlers +came over; during the first twenty years of the settlement of New +England, where it was strongest, there were more than twenty thousand. +The later churchmen of Virginia and the Carolinas, the Catholics of +Maryland, the Quakers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and a great body +of Presbyterians, Huguenots, Mennonites, Moravians, and adherents of +other sects which were products of the Reformation, sought tinder the +more liberal laws of the colonies the religious liberty which they +could not find at home. + +The working of this influence in England will appear in a later chapter +on the religious history of that country during this period; its +peculiar development in Germany seems to demand a further word of +explanation here. Three forms of reformed doctrine and organization-- +Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Zwinglianism--grew up on German soil in the +years between 1517 and 1555, and obtained more or less extensive +recognition and power from imperial, princely, or city authorities. +Lutheranism, the most moderate and widely accepted form of +Protestantism, was officially established in most of the central and +northern and in some of the southern states and cities; Calvinism, less +widely extended but more strictly organized, held a similar position in +the southwest; while the doctrines of Zwingli, which had been adopted +and were enforced in the greater part of Switzerland, spread to a +number of those southern regions of Germany from which Switzerland was +as yet indistinctly separated. [Footnote: Armstrong, The Emperor +Charles V., I., 228-231.] + +A vast number of earnest souls were not satisfied with any of these +forms of official religion, and even in the earliest days of the +Reformation, preachers arose who went beyond the moderate reforms of +Luther, Zwingli, or Calvin, and whose teachings gained a ready +acceptance. In Saxony, in Hesse, in South Germany, and in Moravia; in +the cities of Constance, Strasburg, Augsburg, and Nuremberg; in the +Netherlands and in Switzerland, there was much preaching and formation +of independent religious communities quite apart from, and indeed in +opposition to, the official Reformation. [Footnote: Moeller, Hist, of +the Christian Church (English trans.), III., 36, 64, 88, 94.] These +radical preachers and their followers represented very different +beliefs and practices. That which was common to them all was an +acceptance of the Bible literally interpreted as a guide both to +doctrine and to church organization. The effort to return to the +apostolic organization of the church led them to reject any but an +unpaid ministry, and to insist that none should be members of their +congregations except such as were personally converted and who +conformed their lives to the teachings of the Bible. + +Their idea was, therefore, the formation of little companies separated +from the surrounding people of the world rather than the Lutheran or +Zwinglian plan of a reorganization of the national church on Protestant +lines en masse. An austere piety, the wearing of plain clothes, the +avoidance of forms of social respect, the refusal to take an oath or to +hold civil office, an assertion of the sinfulness of paying or +receiving tithes or interest, an approach to communistic practice in +matters of property--some or all of these were widely disseminated +among the lower classes of the people to whom such teachings +principally appealed. + +The doctrine which came nearest to being a point of uniformity and a +possible bond of union among these reformers was their objection to +infant baptism. To them baptism was the mark of a personally attained +relation to Christ, and was, therefore, meaningless when administered +to an unconscious infant. Certain "prophets" who came to Wittenberg +from Zwickau confronted Luther and Melancthon with this principle as +early as 1521; and radical reformers proclaimed it in opposition to +Zwingli at Zurich in 1523. Everywhere advocacy of an exact adherence to +the verbal teaching of Holy Writ and a rejection of the claims of an +established church, were accompanied by opposition to infant baptism. +In 1525 for the first time the logical deduction from their premises +was made; those baptized only in their infancy were asserted not to +have been effectively baptized at all, and were rebaptized as a sign of +their conversion. [Footnote: Moeller, Hist, of the Christian Church +(English trans.), III., 65.] From this time onward re-baptism, or, from +the point of view of its advocates, the first valid baptism, became the +test and mark of adoption into many communities of true believers. +Those who practised this rite were, therefore, called "Anabaptists"-- +that is to say, those who baptized a second time--or, more frequently, +merely "Baptists." + +The rebaptism of a person who had been already once baptized was not +only in the eyes of the established church an impiety, it was in the +eyes of the established law a capital crime, and the history of +Anabaptism in Germany is the history of a long martyrdom. In Catholic +and Protestant countries alike these radicals were persecuted. From +Strasburg and Nuremberg they were expelled, in Zurich their leaders +were drowned, in Augsburg they were beheaded, in Austria, Wittenberg, +Bavaria, and the Palatinate they were burned at the stake. + +In 1534 their sect was brought into sudden and fatal prominence by the +revolt in Munster and its vicinity. Here a body of adherents of radical +religious doctrines added to their creed a tenet not common to the +general body of Anabaptists--that is to say, the duty of taking up +temporal arms to overthrow the existing powers and to introduce the New +Jerusalem. The old episcopal city was seized by the Anabaptist leaders, +bloody battles were fought, and after a six months' orgy of fanaticism, +libertinism, and violence the rebels were defeated by the united troops +of Catholic and Lutheran powers and a terrible vengeance taken. + +Anabaptists everywhere, no matter how peaceable and moderate their +principles, suffered under the imputation of holding such doctrines as +had led to the terrible excesses at Munster, as they had long before +been held to sympathize with the Peasants' Revolt; and their +persecutions became correspondingly harsher. Nevertheless, they +continued to form communities and to spread through Germany, the +Netherlands, and Switzerland. The attractiveness of the teachings of +wandering Anabaptist preachers long continued unabated, and their +regularly organized congregations or communities, because of their +thrift, honesty, and plainness of life, survived and flourished, +wherever they could obtain even the barest and most temporary +toleration. + +They were necessarily a people without a national home. Seldom for a +whole generation did any considerable body of Anabaptists or Pietists +remain undisturbed in any one locality. Expelled by imperial edict from +Bohemia, they made their way to Hungary and Transylvania; fined, +imprisoned, and in danger of death in Protestant Switzerland, they +migrated to the Tyrol, to the Palatinate, and to the south German +cities, only soon to be visited there with still worse persecution. +During the two great religious wars they suffered especial hardships, +and in the midst of the Thirty Years' War they were rigorously expelled +by the emperor from all his hereditary dominions, even from Moravia, +where they had been allowed to exist for almost a century. [Footnote: +Moeller, Hist. of the Christian Church (English trans.), III., 437- +442.] Either from original differences of doctrine and personal +influence, or from later divisions and reorganization, grew up those +bodies which, although often, as has been seen, grouped under the +general head of Anabaptists, have become known in Europe and America as +Mennonites, Amish, and Dunkers; and each of these bodies has +experienced various divisions. The Schwenkfelders, Boehmists, and other +mystics or pietists, are habitually grouped with these sects, rather +because of their similar historical origin and attitude to the +established churches than of any identity of religious belief. + +By the close of the seventeenth century the condition of these +dissenters from the established churches had become more tolerable; but +they were at best a remnant, narrowed in spirit by persecution, +repeatedly separated from their earlier homes, still under the ban of +ecclesiastical disapproval, and even where tolerated living under +burdensome restrictions. The rising colonies of the New World, +especially those which promised religious liberty, and above all that +one of them whose Quaker founder held doctrines so like their own, must +have exerted, notwithstanding their alien race and tongue, an almost +irresistible attraction upon them. In view of the political and +religious history of Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, it is therefore no wonder that a vast number of Germans +emigrated to America, and that in Pennsylvania were soon to be found +numerous representatives of every religious sect that existed in the +fatherland. + +The religious divisions which sprang from the Protestant Reformation +were not restricted to the Old World. In America, also, religion was a +centrifugal influence, splitting up old colonies, and establishing new +centres of population, which in turn attracted other groups of +emigrants from Europe, and brought into existence still other types of +government and society. [Footnote: Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation, +266-346.] The results were shown in the characteristics of Rhode Island +and Connecticut, of Germantown and Bethlehem, in some of the principal +contrasts between New France and New England, and in many of the lesser +diversities that have distinguished different sections of America in +their subsequent history. Many influences combined to give form and +character to each American settlement: its race elements, the +commercial requirements of the controlling chartered company, the +demands of the home government, the theoretical ideas of the founder, +the habitudes of the colonists in the lands from which they came. Among +these influences, as among the motives for emigration, the religious +experiences and desires of the settlers were a prime factor. + +The Reformation indirectly affected America by wars which soon led to +the rise of some nations, the fall of others; they pitted Catholic +states against Protestant states, they weakened Germany, France, and +the southern Netherlands by a sanguinary civil struggle, and were +avoided in England only by harsh persecution. + +In the Iberian peninsula the progress of Protestantism was so slight +and so quickly crushed out that it played no part in the colonization +of Portuguese or Spanish America. It is true that the somewhat outworn +machinery of the Inquisition was rejuvenated in the sixteenth century, +so as to reach a Protestant movement in Seville, the sailing-point for +the American fleets; and this was made an excuse for the introduction +of a stricter and more vigorous policy of orthodox uniformity in Spain. +The Inquisition also found occupation in looking after heretic foreign +merchants and sailors in Spanish seaports, and Jews and Protestant +Germans in the American colonies; but no Spaniards ever emigrated to +America to escape religious persecution. + +As for France, the terrible religious wars of the sixteenth century +weakened her projects of colonization, as they did all her other +activities, and divided her people into two hostile parties, one of +which must ultimately crush out the other. The short-lived colonies +established in the middle years of the sixteenth century in Brazil and +in Florida were due largely to the hope that they might be places of +refuge for oppressed Huguenots. The first French colonies which had any +successful outcome, however, were the creation of the other religious +party; for Richelieu, when he took up the establishment of colonies in +1624, insisted on Catholic orthodoxy in the religion of the colonists. +This precaution was doubtless due to the Huguenot efforts for +independence and their treasonable negotiations in France. In founding +distant colonies as extensions of the power of the home government, a +minister could hardly permit the domination in the new colonies of a +party with which he was in deadly conflict at home. Whatever his +motive, orthodoxy was insisted on; and New France, like New Spain, +became unbrokenly Catholic. + +The English colonies, however, ultimately profited by what the French +colonies had lost. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in +1685, persecution sent a stream of Huguenots to the various English +colonies of America, and added thereby a valuable and interesting +strain to the richly mingled blood of the American race. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RELIGIOUS WARS IN THE NETHERLANDS AND GERMANY + +(1520-1648) + + +The revolt of the Netherlands, which created a new and vigorous +European state in the sixteenth century, and a great commercial and +colonizing world-power in the seventeenth, was as much a religious as a +political movement. The centralizing, autocratic, and unconciliatory +policy of Philip II. was probably enough in itself to have caused +rebellion in the Netherlands; while the religious conflict was so +bitter that it would almost certainly have caused a revolt, even if +there had been no political friction. The revolt of 1568 and the war +which lasted till 1609, as a matter of fact, turned on causes belonging +equally to both fields. + +When Charles V. visited the Netherlands in 1520, on his way to claim +the imperial crown, the twenty-two provinces then gathered into his +hands were all nominally Catholic; and the large majority of the +population were sincerely attached to Rome. Yet reformed doctrines soon +made their way into the country in several forms. In the southern and +central states, Flanders, Brabant, Hainault, Holland, and Zealand, +Calvinism entered from France; into Friesland and North Holland came +many Mennonites; in some of the towns there were Anabaptists; in the +great commercial cities, such as Antwerp and Amsterdam, Lutherans were +numerous, some of them immigrants from Germany, some converted to that +faith through the communications between lower Germany and the adjacent +provinces of the Netherlands. [Footnote: Blok, Hist. of the People of +the Netherlands (English trans), III., 22.] Even the Catholics of the +Netherlands were not of a bigoted or militant type; heresy had been +wide-spread there since the thirteenth century, and the inhabitants had +not the horror of it that was felt in some more orthodox countries. +[Footnote: Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, I., Introd, xii.] + +Among the wealthy, turbulent, strong-minded, and patriotic Netherland +burghers and peasantry Reformation doctrines and principles readily +spread and gained acceptance; yet they were met by the most determined +and harsh opposition from the government which now held the Netherlands +in the hollow of its hand. In 1521 Charles V. issued from Worms an +edict dooming to loss of property and death every Dutch, Flemish, or +Walloon adherent of the teachings of Luther; and in 1523 two monks were +burned at Brussels as first-fruits of the long and miserable harvest +which was so abundantly reaped afterwards. + +A series of edicts known as the "Placards" was now issued by Charles, +prohibiting private meetings for religious worship, reading of the +Scripture by laymen, discussions on questions of faith, the destruction +of religious emblems, the harboring of heretics, the possession of +heretical books, and, in general, all heretic or non-Catholic opinions +and practices. These edicts were enforced by all the power of the civil +government, and by the activity of four inquisitors. The "Placards" +reached their culmination in the edict of 1550, renewing and making +more severe all punishments for religious offences. When Charles, in +1556, laid down the burden of government in favor of his son, the +persecutions had numbered their hundreds, if not thousands, of victims; +but heresy had spread only the more widely, and Protestantism in its +various forms had become only the stronger. + +Philip II. entered upon the struggle with heresy even more vigorously +than his father. Even the Catholics of the Netherlands were opposed to +the enforcement of the "Placards," while the heretics who were +suffering and multiplying under it were looking forward almost +desperately to some change that would make their position more +tolerable. The States-General, the nearest approach to a national +legislature that the Netherlands possessed, in 1559 pleaded for +mildness. It was only the Spanish ruler who was determined to apply the +heresy laws in all their vigor; and when he left the Netherlands and +began to direct their administration from Spain, the religious question +became more and more the great unifying element in national resistance +to his policy. + +William of Orange, in the council of state, took the lead in drawing up +a petition to the king for the amelioration of the "Placards" and for +the suspension of the decrees for an inflexible orthodoxy which had +just been promulgated from Trent. He pointed out the necessity of +recognizing the proximity and influence of Lutheran Germany upon the +Netherlands, the actual extension of Protestantism in the provinces, +and the degree to which the old church had lost its authority over the +hearts of men. In words that rose in dignity and significance far above +the ordinary contests of Catholics and Protestants, he declared: "I am +Catholic, and will not deviate from religion; but I cannot approve the +custom of kings to confine men's creed and religion within arbitrary +limits." [Footnote: Blok, Hist. of the People of the Netherlands +(English trans), III., 14.] Philip replied to this petition of the +Catholic nobles of the Netherlands by the edict of Segovia, dated +October 17, 1565, insisting more vehemently than ever before on the +enforcement of the laws against heresy in all their severity, including +what was practically the introduction of the Spanish Inquisition. On +the other hand, the Reformation pressed on with rapid strides; vast +crowds gathered outside of Tournai, Harlem, Antwerp, and other cities +to listen to Calvinist preachers. Ten, twelve, and twenty thousand of +the populace assembled at a time to sing psalms and hymns and to listen +to the appeals of teachers eloquent and devout, but almost invariably +heretical. + +The inevitable crisis was now hastening on. The lesser nobles, +including some Calvinists, soon formed the "Confederation," sent their +petition to the king, and in 1567 broke out in fruitless rebellion. +Almost at the same time the mob rose in the image-breaking riots which +spread like wild-fire over all the provinces except the most southern. +Then came Alva, with his unlimited powers, his veteran troops, his +"Council of Blood," his more than ten thousand victims of political and +religious persecution, and the awful severity and barbarity that have +made his name a synonym of cruelty and heartless despotism. William of +Orange brought an army into Brabant in 1568, and revolt was soon in +full progress. Even under Charles V. there had been much emigration +from the Netherlands to Germany and England, to escape religious +persecution. Now the barbarities of Alva increased the number many- +fold. It was estimated that there were at one time sixty thousand Dutch +and Walloon refugees living in England. By 1568 the emigrants were said +to number four hundred thousand. + +As the revolt progressed and the various cities expelled the officers +of the Spanish governor and put themselves under the banner of Orange, +they became little oases of toleration. The instructions of William to +his lieutenants in the north in 1572 ordered them "to restore fugitives +and the banished for conscience' sake--and to see that the Word of God +is preached, without, however, suffering any hindrance to the Roman +Church in the exercise of its religion." [Footnote: Motley, Rise of the +Dutch Republic, pt. iii.] By November, 1576, when the treaty known as +the Pacification of Ghent was made between Holland and Zealand on the +one hand and the fifteen southern provinces on the other, liberalism in +religious views had progressed as far as the power of the patriotic +party extended; and all "Placards" and edicts on the subject of +religion were suspended till a national assembly should take final +action on the subject. At the same time it was provided that there +should be no action against the Catholic religion, outside the +territory of Holland and Zealand. [Footnote: Blok, Hist, of the People +of the Netherlands (English trans.), III., 105, 106.] + +Soon the Flemish provinces, where Protestantism had made least headway +and where distrust of the north was strong, were "pacified" by Don John +of Austria and Alexander of Parma. The Union of Arras, of January 6, +1579, became a centre of union and reconciliation to Spain and +Catholicism for the fifteen southern provinces. Just three weeks +afterwards the Union of Utrecht was formed, which united the seven +northern provinces and became the basis of the free republic of the +United Netherlands: each province was to make its own religious +arrangements, though toleration was secured by the provision that no +one should be molested or questioned on the subject of divine worship. +[Footnote: Arts. 5, 9, 10, n, 12, 13, quoted in Motley, pt. vi., +chap.i.] Thus while the southern provinces set their feet in the path +of a return to Roman Catholic uniformity, the northern provinces +pledged themselves to toleration of Catholics and of all sects of +Protestants alike. + +Toleration is to the modern student the chief interest and glory of the +foundation of the United Netherlands; but it was not toleration but +Protestantism which then gave the young republic its peculiar strength, +vigor, and enterprise. Even in the Pacification of Ghent and the Union +of Utrecht, Holland and Zealand were recognized as Protestant states. +As the bitter struggle progressed, their Protestantism became more +pronounced and more militant. Exiled Calvinists from the south flocked +to Amsterdam, Middleburg, Rotterdam, and other northern cities in great +numbers, intensifying the Protestant character of these communities and +enriching them with capital, business ability, and an astonishingly +large proportion of gifted men. [Footnote: Jameson, Usselinx, 27.] The +formal abjuration of Philip by the United Provinces in 1581, on grounds +so largely religious, could not but bring into still greater prominence +the Protestantism of the country which now claimed its independence. +The long-continued warfare that followed the assassination of the +beloved prince of Orange, the sieges, mutinies, and battles by land and +sea, steadily deepened the religious and political hatred between the +Netherlands and Spain. + +By the year 1596 internal theological struggles between Remonstrants +and Contra-Remonstrants approached the proportions of a civil war; and +the victory gained by the latter party through the intervention of the +stadtholder Maurice connected religion and politics, church and state, +even more clearly, and made still more intense the fiery Protestantism +of the Dutch government. [Footnote: Blok, Hist of the People of the +Netherlands (English trans.), III., 398-447.] Strengthened by her +efforts, hardened by her struggles, awakened to vigorous life by the +exhilaration of the long and arduous conflict, the little Protestant +state approached the end of the sixteenth century, enterprising in +internal plans and eager for new fields of foreign commerce. The +probability that commercial expansion would bring her into conflict +with Spain added zest to the prospect and gave promise that in +extending trade, conquering distant possessions, and establishing +colonies, she would at the same time be weakening her bitterest enemy. + +Hence the early Dutch expeditions to the Indies, the formation of the +East and West India Companies, the establishment of the colonies in +Brazil, Guiana, and North America, and of commercial factories in the +East Indies, were all of them in a certain sense part of the religious +and political struggle between the Netherlands and Spain. When the +twelve years' truce was signed, in 1609, those provinces which had +returned to the Spanish obedience were uniformly Catholic, but their +prosperity and international significance had disappeared. The +independent provinces, on the other hand, were, for all their +toleration, almost uniformly Protestant, and they were already one of +the great maritime and commercial powers of Europe. [Footnote: Blok, +Hist of the People of the Netherlands (English trans), III., 326-334.] + +The United Netherlands speedily colonized New Amsterdam, Guiana, Cape +Colony, Java, and other places, with a population persistent in +Protestantism and in many race characteristics. Unfortunately for +Holland the number of her emigrants was never great enough to enable +her permanently to play a great part in the history of colonization. +The Dutch are not an emigrating people. Yet those who did emigrate +carried with them such an assertive character and so highly developed a +group of institutions that they exercised a deep and permanent +influence over communities like New York, in which they soon ceased to +be the dominant element; while their institutions in Holland made such +a strong impression upon English sojourners in their midst that some of +their characteristics reappeared long afterwards in American colonies +in which no Dutchman had ever settled. [Footnote: Douglas Campbell, +Puritan in Holland.] + +The Reformation, with the wars to which it gave rise, made Germany for +a time the most conspicuous state in Europe, but its ultimate effect +was to reduce that state to a degree of material poverty, political +insignificance, and intellectual torpidity unknown before in her +experience. Civil war was long delayed; the political necessities and +the astute policy of Charles V., the conservative instincts and +patriotic scruples of Luther, and the doubtful position of many of the +German provinces and cities, long prevented any attempt by the emperor +to enforce the orthodoxy required by the Diet of Worms, and induced the +Lutherans to go more than halfway in accepting the policy of +postponement. [Footnote: Armstrong, The Emperor Charles V., I., 201- +203, 240-256,] Yet even this early period was troubled by successive +minor outbreaks of violence. The "Knights' War" of 1523, the Peasants' +Revolt of 1524 and 1525, the Zwinglian wars in Switzerland in 1531, and +the Anabaptist outbreak at Munster in 1534 were all connected with the +religious ferment of the times. + +From 1530, when the League of Schmalkald was formed to unite the +Protestant princes and cities, Germany really belonged to two camps, +and civil war was only a question of time. The time came in 1546, the +year of Luther's death, when Charles was at last free from foreign +complications and could make the attempt to reintroduce conformity into +Germany. The Schmalkaldic War, although marked by a series of imperial +successes and temporarily closed by a triumphant truce in 1548, was +soon renewed, and the Peace of Passau of 1552 was a general compromise, +representing rather the weariness of war and the jealousies of the +various powers of Germany than any permanent political of religious +equilibrium. An attempt was made to establish a more lasting settlement +in the conference of Augsburg in 1555. Here the terms of the recent +treaty were put in more formal shape: Lutheranism was given legal +recognition; all religious disputes should be settled by peaceful +means; in legal causes between a Protestant and a Catholic the Imperial +Hight Court of Justice should be composed of an equal number of +Catholics and Protestants. + +On the other hand, certain compromises were then introduced which were +destined to be fatal to the permanency of the religious and political +settlement. + +1. Instead of individual toleration, as was originally proposed, the +principle was adopted which has become known as cujus regio ejus +religio--that is to say, each prince or imperial city should choose +between Catholicism and Lutheranism; and thereafter all inhabitants +must conform, or, if unwilling to do so, must expatriate themselves. +The unstable equilibrium of the empire was thus transferred to the +individual states, and each was threatened with internal revolution +whenever there was a change in the prevailing religious views of the +inhabitants or the personal beliefs of the prince. + +2. A second compromise was reached by providing that all ecclesiastical +property seized by temporal governments down to the close of the late +war should be guaranteed to its new possessors; but that for the future +the process of secularization should cease. Thus an artificial obstacle +was placed in the way of the avarice or the desire for reform of the +Protestant princes, at the very time they were given increased control +in their own states. + +3. The "ecclesiastical reservation" made an exception to the right of +territorial independence in religion in the case of the ecclesiastical +states, which were so numerous in Germany. If any archbishop, bishop, +or abbot, who was also a secular prince, should become a Lutheran, he +must resign his office and divest himself of his power and +jurisdiction, which would pass to his Catholic successor. This +provision deprived Protestant subjects of ecclesiastical princes of all +prospect of religious freedom, and doomed them to compulsory +reconciliation with the Catholic Church or to exile, except for certain +rights guaranteed to them by the treaty. + +4. The compromises of Augsburg were compromises between Catholics and +Lutherans only, and neither Calvinists nor Zwinglians were given +recognition in its terms, although Calvinism was destined to be the +great aggressive force of the Reformation, making an appeal to the +masses of the people and taking a fundamental hold upon its adherents +beyond anything which Lutheranism, or indeed any other form of the +Reformation, ever obtained. + +The agreement reached in 1555, incomplete and unstable as it seemed, +remained the foundation of an outward if somewhat troubled religious +peace for more than sixty years. Yet a renewal of the conflict was +threatened from time to time, and in 1618 the terrible Thirty Years' +War broke out. The earlier contests had been civil wars only, the +renewed war was no longer merely a German struggle. In 1625 Christian +IV., king of Denmark, entered the war as leader on the Protestant side, +only to yield to the perseverance of Tilly, the general of the Catholic +armies, and to the genius of Wallenstein, the representative of Emperor +Ferdinand; and to retire in 1629, leaving north Germany more completely +than before at the mercy of the emperor and of the Catholic party. +Scarcely a year later Gustavus Adolphus, full of enthusiasm for the +Protestant cause and provided with funds from France, brought his +veteran regiments and his military ability from Sweden into Germany, +and fought in consecutive years his three wonderful campaigns. After +the death of the "Lion of the North," in 1632, the "Swedish period" +endured still two years; and when, in 1634, Catholic and Protestant +princes entered upon a truce they made terms upon an equality, though +there was even yet but little promise of a permanent settlement. + +Just before the fatal battle of Lutzen, in the midst of military +preparations, a decisive step was taken by Gustavus which ultimately +led to the creation of one more American colony. Ever since the +introduction of new issues. One after another, foreign states were +drawn into the struggle until a mere German civil war had developed +into a general European conflict, in which foreigners were struggling +for German territory. Catholics made alliances with Lutherans and with +Calvinists, until what had begun as a religious struggle became a +purely political contest among unpatriotic German princes and ambitious +neighbors of Germany contending for power and prestige. + +When, at the peace of 1648, political questions had been settled, +territorial changes agreed upon, the Netherlands and Switzerland +definitely separated from the empire, Alsace surrendered to France, and +much of Pomerania to Sweden, the religious conflict was brought to an +end as far as possible by returning to the old plan of the treaty of +Augsburg, except that such toleration as was then granted to Catholics +and Lutherans was now extended to Calvinists also. To these provisions +some further extensions of religious liberty were added by securing +guarantees of protection to subjects differing in their religion from +their princes and by including in the highest imperial tribunal a +certain number of Protestants. [Footnote: Lamprecht, Deutsche +Geschichte, V., sect ii., 764.] The material sufferings and losses of +Germany during the war were almost beyond description. [Footnote: +Erdmannsdorffer, Deutsche Geschichte, 1648-1740, I., 100-115] The +armies, made tip largely of soldiers of different nationalities, +without attachment to the countries through which they marched, without +interest in the questions at issue, without a regular commissariat, +often without pay, brutalized by long campaigning and repeated sacks of +cities, followed by an immense rabble of non-combatant men, women, and +children, were a barbarian horde, and ravaged the lands in which they +were established like a fire or a pestilence. The tortures they +inflicted upon the peasantry and the citizens, the robbery, the +outrages, the wanton destruction, pressed close to the limits of human +endurance, and seemed almost to threaten the extermination of the +population. The prosperity of the cities was crushed by war +contributions, even when they escaped being plundered like Magdeburg; +and the debasement of the coinage practised by the emperor and the +princes bore hardly upon all who bought or sold. [Footnote: Gindeley, +History of the Thirty Years' War (English trans.), II., 390-395] During +the later campaigns of the war military operations in many regions +became almost impracticable from the very impoverishment of the +country; no sustenance existed for friend or for enemy; population in +some parts was almost destroyed, and it was everywhere extensively +displaced. [Footnote: Ibid., 398.] The conservatism, the settled +rooting of the people in the soil, acquired and inherited property, +moral and material fixity, were all alike disturbed. + +The half-century that followed 1648 did but little to restore +prosperity or repose to Germany. The western provinces especially were +the scene of frequently renewed warfare. The territorial ambitions of +Louis XIV. were directed to the German lands which lay on the eastern +border of France, and there was no strength in the empire to resist his +aggressions or to make him fear either defeat or reprisals. Even the +European coalitions which forced upon him successive treaties did not +prevent renewed attacks or heal the scars of the repeated devastations +of the lower and the upper Rhine country. The culmination of this +period of suffering was the terrible ravaging of the Palatinate, in +1688, when the fertile region about Heidelberg, Mannheim, Speyer, and +Worms was harried and burned and pillaged by the soldiers of Louis, +with the same brutality and more destructiveness than the wild Swedish +and mercenary armies of the Thirty Years' War had used. + +A people with an experience such as that of the Germans in the +seventeenth century was thenceforth easily drawn away from home. One +generation of continuous warfare throughout all Germany, followed by +another generation of intermittent invasion from France, and closed by +a crisis of rapine and devastation, made hundreds of thousands of the +German people homeless, despairing, and eager for escape. It was this +situation of the people, combined with the religious condition before +described, that made Germany the best recruiting-ground for American +colonists to be found in Europe. Before the close of the seventeenth +century a stream of emigration set from Germany towards America which +furnished to Pennsylvania one-third of her pre-Revolutionary +inhabitants, and made a considerable part of the population of several +of the other colonies. + +A second effect of the Thirty Years' War was the practical dissolution +of the empire and the loss by the emperor of all centralized control +over its policy. This was a cumulative result of the war rather than a +definite provision of the peace. The princes, nobles, and cities had so +frequently allied themselves with foreign states against the emperor +and against one another, their policy had been so constantly regulated +by their own interests alone, in entire disregard of those of the +nation at large, and the religious divisions had been settled on such a +sectional basis, that there was now no thought of derogating from their +independence for the sake of the central power of Germany. By Article +VIII. of the treaty of peace all German states were definitely +permitted to form independent alliances among themselves and with +foreign states, so long as these were not directed against either the +emperor or the empire. [Footnote: Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschtchte, V., +Section 2, pp 765, 766.] As a matter of fact, the bond of union among +the states of Germany had become so weak as to be almost non-existent. +The emperor was the actual ruler of the Hapsburg dominions and the +nominal head of the empire; but Germany was a geographical rather than +a national expression, and its head could play no part as a national +ruler outside of his immediate hereditary dominions. Germany had many +interests in America. Martin Behaim, Regiomontanus, and other German +scientists contributed largely to the development of the science of +navigation during the period of discovery; Waldseemuller suggested the +name that has been universally accepted for the New World; the numerous +printing-presses of Germany did much to make known to Europe the +history of the exploration and early conquests and the wonders of the +Indies; under Charles V. the empire was brought closely into connection +with Spain, the greatest colonizing power of the seventeenth century; +her Fuggers, Welsers, and other capitalists provided much of the means +for the early Spanish voyages, and for a time held extensive grants in +Venezuela under the Spanish crown; and her teeming emigrants furnished +a large part of the colonial population. Yet Germany as a nation has, +of all the nations of Europe, exercised the least influence on the +fortunes of America. Neither the emperor nor any German prince has ever +exercised any direct or indirect power over any American territory. +Many causes may have contributed to this failure, but the most +effective was doubtless the Thirty Years' War. The religious disunion, +the material impoverishment, and the political insignificance which +this war caused, during the most important colonizing century, excluded +Germany as a nation from a role among the European powers which have +held control over parts of the New World. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND THE CATHOLICS + +(1534-1660) + + +England passed through the crisis of the Reformation without a civil +war, yet no country of Europe found greater difficulty in coming to a +religious equilibrium after that change. Though actual rebellion was +nipped in the bud wherever it appeared, as in the Pilgrimage of Grace +of 1536 and in the Rising of the North of 1569, yet between those +years, and long after the second rising, religious passions were +embittered to the very verge of outbreak. In the early period of the +Reformation changes were rapid and violent, and during more than a +century and a half after Protestantism was established hostile +legislation imposed heavy burdens upon all those who differed from the +dominant party in religious faith. + +When England became a colonizing country at the opening of the +seventeenth century, the effect of the religious changes up to that +time had been to produce four well-marked religious parties among her +people--Churchmen, Catholics, Puritans, and Independents. First in +order came the adherents of the established church, a church which was +in a very real sense the creation of Queen Elizabeth and of her times-- +for all that had gone before was unstable and tentative, and might +readily have been altered by a ruler of different character or policy. +When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558 the great body of the people +of England, from a religious point of view, was still a fluid mass, a +sea accustomed to be drawn, like the tide, by the planet that ruled the +sky, whether an Erastian Henry VIII., a Catholic Mary, or a Protestant +Protector Somerset. + +Elizabeth declared at her accession that she would not allow her people +to swerve to the right hand or the left from the religion established +by law; and in the main she succeeded in carrying out this policy. The +prayer-book, the articles of religion, the supremacy of the queen, the +uniformity of service, the practices and doctrines of the official +English church during the long reign of Elizabeth, meant something very +definite and made the established church an objective reality. Of +course she learned, as other sovereigns have learned, that even the +will of a king may break against the rock of religious conviction, and +large numbers of the people of England during her reign remained, or +became, dissatisfied with the established church. + +Nevertheless, when Elizabeth died Anglicanism was the national church +in a sense in which it had not been before, and in exactly the same +sense as that in which the Roman Catholic church was the church of +Spain. A generation had grown up which had seen no other religious +system in authority, whose beliefs and duties were taught them by its +clergy, and whose sentiments and devotion naturally gathered around it +as their object. This religious system, therefore, was strongly +intrenched: it had all the authoritativeness of law, all the sanction +of patriotic feeling in a period of intense patriotism, and the support +of much sound learning; besides, the church was fast becoming hallowed +by tradition and beautified to the imagination by sentiment. Yet for +various reasons the Anglican church failed to obtain the allegiance of +the whole English nation. + +The second of the four great religious classes, the Catholics, held +allegiance to a still older and more imposing organization. However +clear the argument of English churchmen that the Anglican body was the +church founded by the apostles and enduring continuously in England +through all the intervening centuries, the "old church" was still to +many the church of which the pope was the earthly head. From the time +that Henry VIII. attacked the supremacy of the pope and many of the +characteristic doctrines and practices of the mediaeval church, a party +separate from the national church came into being, which clung +faithfully to that system. + +The existence of the English Roman Catholics as a separate body from +the established English church may be considered to date from the +resignation of Sir Thomas More from the chancellorship in 1532. During +the remainder of Henry's reign their position was equivocal and +dangerous, a number of conspicuous Catholics accepting martyrdom under +the laws against treason, when brought to the test of the acceptance or +rejection of the king's claim to the headship of the English church. +Under the enlightened rule of Somerset they were not persecuted, but +under his successor, and under the personal rule of Edward VI., they +fared much worse. [Footnote: Pollard, England Under Protector Somerset, +110-120, 258-264, 322] The time of consolation came under Queen Mary, +when for a space of five years (1553-1558) the English church and +English Catholicism again became identical. + +Elizabeth on her accession had no antagonism to the Roman Catholics as +such. Neither in doctrine nor in ceremonial was there any essential +breach between Elizabeth and the Catholic church; and for a moment the +world watched to see what her decision would be. [Footnote: Maitland, +"Defender of the Faith" (Eng Hist Review, XV.,120).] Yet the nature of +her position dictated to her a return to the ecclesiastical position of +her father, and an acquiescence in the main results of the Protestant +development under Edward VI. She accepted the requirements of the +policy readily enough, and by the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity of +1559 [Footnote: I Eliz., chaps, i., ii. ] the English Catholics again +became a proscribed body, living in disobedience to the law, subject to +severe pains and penalties for any speech or action against the +established church, and even for the negative offence of absence from +its religious services. + +The disabilities of the Catholics according to the laws passed at the +opening of the reign of Elizabeth were as follows: 1. No Catholic could +hold any office or employment under the crown, or any ecclesiastical +office in England, or receive any university degree: for all such +persons were required to take an oath renouncing the authority of the +pope, and acknowledging the headship of the queen in ecclesiastical +matters. [Footnote: Ibid., chap, ii., sub-section 19-25.] 2. No +Catholic could attend mass: the service of the prayer-book being +required at all meetings for worship in England. [Footnote: Ibid., +chap, ii., sub-section 3-8.] 3. No Catholic could remain away from the +regular services of the established church: as the law required that +"all and every person and persons inhabiting within the realm or any +other the queen's majesty's dominions shall diligently and faithfully, +having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent, endeavor themselves +to resort to their parish church or chapel accustomed ... upon every +Sunday and other days ordained and used to be kept as holy days, and +then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the +common prayer, preachings, or other service of God there to be used and +ministered." [Footnote: I Eliz., chap, ii., Section 14.] 4. No Catholic +could speak, write, or circulate any arguments or appeals in favor of +the ecclesiastical claims of the Catholic church or in derogation of +the royal supremacy or of the prayer-book. + +The penalties for violation of these laws varied from a fine of one +shilling for absence from church on a Sunday or holy day to the +terrible customary punishment for treason in the case of repeated +conviction for supporting the claims of the pope. These fundamental +disabilities remained in existence during the whole of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries. They were added to from time to time as the +religious conflict in England, and in Europe at large, became more +embittered; although, on the other hand, there were occasional periods +when the exigencies of policy or the sympathies of the sovereign +temporarily suspended their enforcement. They remained the fundamental +law long after the Act of Toleration of 1689 made easy the burdens of +other Nonconformists, and until the gradual progress of enlightenment +in the eighteenth century led to a willing neglect to enforce them; and +they disappeared only in 1829. + +The tendency during the reign of Elizabeth was constantly towards an +increase in the severity of the laws against "popish recusants," as +those who refused to conform to the established church were called, and +to greater rigor in their application. At four successive periods +during that reign additions were made to the disabilities and +sufferings imposed by law upon Roman Catholics. + +1. An act of 1563 extended the lines of restriction so that the oath of +supremacy must be taken by a much greater number of officials--by all +school-masters, lawyers, and petty officers of court, and by all +members of the House of Commons; and so that the first refusal of any +person to take it, as well as the first occasion on which any one +should in writing or speech support the claims of the pope, should be +punished by confiscation and outlawry, the second offence by the +penalties of treason. [Footnote: Eliz., chap. i.] 2. The difficulties +of the Catholics were increased by the coming, in 1568, of Mary Queen +of Scots to England, where she became a permanent centre of Catholic +disaffection and hopes; by the Rebellion of the North in 1569; and by +the papal bull of deposition of the queen in 1570. The laws at once +reflected the anger and alarm of Parliament and ministers, and their +care "for the surety and preservation of the queen's most royal person, +in whom consisteth all the happiness and comfort of the whole state and +subjects of the realm." [Footnote: 13 Eliz., chap, i., Section I.] From +1571 to 1575 four new treason laws, [Footnote: Ibid., chaps, i, ii.; 14 +Eliz., chaps, i., ii.] directed against sympathizers with Mary and +bringers of bulls from Rome, recall the savage legislation of Henry +VIII. under somewhat similar circumstances. + +3. A third series of additions to the anti-Catholic code was called out +by the efforts of the Jesuits, from 1579 onward, to reconquer the +heretical nations and especially England, for the church. Hence, in +1581, the mere attempt to convert any subject of the queen to Roman +Catholicism, as well as the acceptance of such reconciliation with the +church, was made treason; the saying or hearing of the mass was +forbidden under penalty of heavy fine and long imprisonment; recusants +who were absent from church a month at a time were fined 20 pounds a +month for the length of time for which they stayed away; [Footnote: 23 +Eliz., chap. i.] and by a later law the crown was allowed, in case of +recusancy, instead of the fine, to seize two-thirds of the property of +the offender. [Footnote: Ibid., chap. ii.] + +Certain offences which Catholics might be especially expected to +commit, such as "by setting or erecting any figure or by casting of +nativities or by calculations or by any prophesying, witchcraft, +conjuration, or other like unlawful means whatsoever, seek to know, and +shall set forth by express words, deeds, or writings how long her +majesty shall live, or who shall reign king or queen of this realm of +England after her highness's decease," were made punishable by death +and confiscation of goods. In 1585 all Jesuits and Catholic priests +trained abroad were banished on pain of death, and all English subjects +studying abroad in one of those Jesuit schools, which had already +become famous as the best schools in Christendom, were required to +return to England immediately and take the oath of supremacy or suffer +the penalties of treason. + +4. Within the next few years came the execution of Mary, the war with +Spain, the defeat of the Armada, and the definite passing of the crisis +of Elizabeth's reign. Nevertheless, the year 1593 was marked by an "act +against popish recusants," which required all English Catholics to +remain within five miles of their homes, and provided for a still +closer search for Jesuits and priests. [Footnote: 35 Eliz., chap. ii.] + +Thus an augmenting body of oppressive law, in addition to their +fundamental disabilities, burdened the English Catholics at the +accession of James I. in 1603. That event they may well have looked +forward to and welcomed with joy. James was the son of Mary of +Scotland, for whom many of them had made such deep personal sacrifices +and on whose account all had been made to suffer. He was known to be a +man of moderate spirit, easy good-nature, and philosophic breadth of +mind. Circumstances, by relieving England from the fear of invasion +from Spain, and by establishing the Protestant succession, might be +considered to have left the way open for the admission of a more +generous and tolerant treatment of the Catholic minority. The king +controlled the enforcement or the non-enforcement of the law; his word +could put the machinery of the courts, high and low, into motion for +purposes of persecution; or, on the other hand, could open the prison +doors to those already incarcerated, and restrain the indictment of +those amenable to the law. James might fairly be expected to have the +will, as he undoubtedly had the power, to treat the Catholics with +greater leniency. + +On the other hand, parliamentary and popular antagonism to the Roman +Catholics had to be contended with. Notwithstanding the legal supremacy +and complete predominance of the Anglican church, there was still a +wide-spread fear of the "usurped power and jurisdiction of the bishop +of Rome"; and much patriotic hatred of the Catholic enemies of England +and of their sympathizers within the realm. This national sentiment was +strongly reinforced by the fanatical Puritan fervor of opposition to +"the devilish positions and doctrines whereon popery is built and +taught." The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in which Catesby, Guy Fawkes, and +other Catholic conspirators showed themselves ready to sacrifice the +king, his family, his ministers, and members of Parliament, filled +James for a while with fears for his own safety. If James, therefore, +should favor the Catholics he must do so in opposition to the +overwhelming public opinion of the people of England and to his own +timidity. What would be his policy? Would the persecuted minority be +taken under the protection of the crown? Or would their position remain +as it had been for half a century, or even be made worse? + +Upon the answer to this question depended the happiness or unhappiness +of the Catholics in England and the likelihood or unlikelihood that +many of them would emigrate. Should their position become intolerable, +those who could would either take refuge in one of the Catholic states +of the continent or find an asylum in those boundless lands claimed by +England across the sea. The minds of men through all Europe were +turning towards America, not only as a sphere for trade and a base for +the fighting out of Old-World quarrels, [Footnote: Zuniga to the king +of Spain, December 24, 1606, and September 22,1607, in Brown, Genesis +of the United States, I., 88-90, 116-118.] but as a place of settlement +for men who could not conform to their Old-World religious +surroundings. + +Before the reign of James was over Sir George Calvert obtained a +charter for Avalon, in Newfoundland, the ambiguity of whose terms made +it possible to take Catholic priests and settlers there; and in 1632 he +received in exchange for this a charter for Maryland, under which +Catholics held all official positions and Jesuit missionaries carried +on their work. The British island of Montserrat, in the West Indies, +appears to have been settled in 1634 by Catholic refugees from +Virginia; [Footnote: Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation, 261, n. 9.] and +there were other floating proposals to colonize English and Irish +Catholics in America. [Footnote: Cal. of State Pap., 1628, p. 95.] It +was evidently quite within the bounds of possibility that Catholic +colonies should be established in those "other your highness's +dominions," from which the House of Commons in 1623 especially +petitioned that Romanists should be excluded. [Footnote: Rushworth, +Historical Collections, I., 141.] + +As a matter of fact, the policy of James and of his son and successor +Charles towards the Catholics had little consistency, and shows an +alternation of leniency and increased severity, reflecting the varying +inclinations of the king and the changing exigencies of external and +internal politics. During the first two years of his reign James +lightened their burdens, in accordance with the promises of his first +speech in Parliament, "so much as time, occasion, or law should +permit." [Footnote: Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, +284.] The Gunpowder Plot then thoroughly frightened and angered the +king and justified the House of Commons in its protests against +leniency to the Catholics. In 1606 two long detailed statutes +[Footnote: 3 and 4 James I., chaps. iv., v.] were enacted, carrying +much further in principle the persecuting provisions of the law under +Elizabeth, increasing the burdens upon the conscience, the purse, and +the liberty of Catholics, and specifying the most minute arrangements +for the enforcement of the law and the discovery of those who were +secretly Romanists. + +Before many years a change came, due principally to the interest of +James in the scheme of obtaining a Spanish bride for his son, and to +his increasing subserviency to Gondomar, the shrewd Spanish minister. +The king of Spain would not listen to any negotiations for the hand of +his sister, unless the persecution of his co-religionists in England +was stopped; and James, in order to carry out his foreign policy, +blinded by his admiration for the Spaniard, and always prone to follow +the line of least resistance, promised what he certainly could not +perform, the parliamentary repeal of the anti-Catholic laws. + +Nevertheless, he performed what he could, and ordered the suspension of +their enforcement. In 1622 the lord keeper of the privy seal wrote to +the judges that "it is his majesty's pleasure that they make no +niceness or difficulty to extend the princely favor to all such as they +shall find prisoners in the jails of their circuits for any church +recusancy or refusing the oath of supremacy or dispensing of popish +books, or any other point of recusancy that shall concern religion only +and not matters of state." [Footnote: Rushworth, Historical +Collections, I., 63.] A vast number of Catholics were, in this year, +released on bail or freed completely from prosecution. When the Spanish +marriage negotiations failed, just before the close of the reign of +James, Parliament again petitioned the king to enforce the old penal +laws, at last with success; and a momentary wave of severity towards +the Catholics spread over England. + +Spain was not the only Catholic country with which England was in +negotiation. The marriage of Charles with Henrietta Maria of France +followed close upon his accession to the throne. The conditions of the +marriage treaty called for greater leniency to the Catholics, and the +influence of the queen secured it, though not in the degree promised. +Yet on the whole the attitude of the crown and of the judges during the +period from 1625 to 1640 was favorable to the Catholics; and although +Laud was not plotting to hand over the English church to Rome, as was +the popular belief, he was too sympathetic with the spirit of Roman +Catholicism to put into force the savage laws against it which were +upon the statute-book. + +In 1640 Laud fell, the hand of the king was removed from the helm, and +the domination of the Long Parliament and the protectorate for the next +twenty years meant the bitter persecution of the Catholics; while the +Restoration, in 1660, saw a partial toleration of them, preparatory to +the Declaration of Indulgence and the active efforts of James II. in +their favor twenty-five years later. + +Through all this succession of alternately rigorous and lenient +applications of the harsh laws of the statute-book, as a matter of fact +few Catholics left England, and no American colony remained for any +considerable length of time a Catholic community. The reasons for this +result are not hard to find. In the first place, it may well be +questioned whether the position of the Catholics in England was ever so +bad as one would expect to find it from reading the laws and +parliamentary proceedings. In all Tudor and Stuart legislation there +was a wide chasm between the passage of the law and its enforcement; +the statute-book is loaded with laws that were never carried out, or +were put into force only to the most limited extent. The laws against +the Catholics certainly remained largely unenforced. + +Secondly, the English Catholics were never without hope of an +amelioration of their state at home. The most natural time for a great +Catholic exodus was in the later years of the reign of James I. and the +early years of Charles I., when the foundations alike of Virginia and +New England were being laid, and when Maryland was offering a basis on +which either a Catholic or a Protestant community might presumably have +been built up; but this was just the period when the influence of the +crown was most consistently used in favor of the Catholics at home. +They might fairly hope that a better day was dawning for them, when the +powerful interposition of Spain and France was willingly accepted by +James and Charles in their favor. The special time when emigration +seemed most practicable was also the time when the occasion for it was +least. + +Again, it is to be noted that no American colony ever reached the +position in which it could provide a positively secure refuge to +Catholics. Maryland wavered from toleration to Catholicism, then to +Anglicanism and to Puritanism, and then back to toleration; but never +at any time was it a Catholic settlement in the sense in which +Massachusetts belonged to the Puritans or Pennsylvania was the special +home of the Quakers. English Catholics, hesitating between emigration +and the further endurance of their ills at home, would feel no +irresistible attraction in the dubious toleration of any of the +colonies. [Footnote: Tyler, England in America, chaps, vii., viii.] + +Lastly, it is to be noticed that the great proportion of the English +Catholics were not of the emigrating classes. Many of them were of the +nobility and gentry, and therefore not of the ordinary stuff of which +colonists were made. It is quite possible that the same conservative +tendencies which held them to the old church held them to their old +homes. If they had been as easily detached from their native soil as +the Puritans and Quakers, one cannot doubt that some great migration +comparable to that of those two bodies would have taken place. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ENGLISH PURITANS AND THE SECTS (1550-1689) + + +The multitude of Englishmen other than Catholics, who, at the opening +of the seventeenth century, were dissatisfied with the church of +England as by law established, may be grouped under the general name of +Puritans; although as time passed on various newly organized religious +bodies formed themselves from among them, so that two more religious +classes, at least, have to be differentiated. The roots of Puritanism +are to be found in the characteristics of human temperament. +Conservatives and radicals will always exist; the Puritans were those +who carried or tried to carry the principles and ideas of the +Reformation to their logical and rigorous conclusion. Such men as +Latimer, Cranmer, and many of the theologians of the reign of Edward +VI., were already steadily approaching the fundamental position of the +Puritans, as their thought developed, long before the foreign influence +of the reign of Queen Mary became effective and the modified +Protestantism of Elizabeth was introduced. + +If the government had kept its hands off, England would have divided +into two camps, that of the Catholics and that of a Puritanically +reformed church. The Anglican system was an artificial one, a +compromise established under the influence of the crown and kept in +power by royal determination till it eventually won the devotion, the +loyalty, or at least the deliberate acceptance of the great body of +moderate and conservative Englishmen. Catholics and Puritans were the +logical opposites, and not Catholics and Anglicans, nor yet Anglicans +and Puritans. + +Yet in a more immediate sense Mary gave occasion to the rise of +Puritanism by driving into banishment many of the more devout +Protestants of her day. At Frankfort, Strasburg, Basel, Zurich, and +Geneva groups of these English exiles gathered, formed congregations +worshipping together; developed, apart from the restrictions of +government, the logical tendencies of their religious ideas; and in +many cases came under the powerful influence of continental reformers. +Especially at Frankfort [Footnote: Hinds, The England of Elizabeth, 12- +67.] and at Geneva was the religious life of these Protestant +communities at white heat; and controversies were then begun and +principles adopted which dominated all the later life of these +Englishmen, and were handed down to their successors in England and +America as party cries through more than a century. When the ordeal of +Mary's reign was over, the exiled for conscience' sake returned to +England, but they formed already a body divergent from the church as it +was then established. + +During Elizabeth's reign three stages of the development of Puritanism +gave occasion for corresponding conflicts with the crown and for making +more clear the differences between Anglican and Puritan. During the +first decade of the reign, Puritanism meant a protest against certain +of the ceremonies and formulas and vestments required of clergymen by +the law. The sign of the cross on the child's forehead in baptism, the +celebration of saints' days, insistence on kneeling to receive the +communion, the use of church organs, the changing of robes during the +service, and even the wearing of a surplice or a square cap, were to +many earnest souls survivals of "popery" and temptations to +superstition. The clergy who held such beliefs tried by resolutions in +convocation to change the practices of the church: but notwithstanding +the large votes in their favor they were still in the minority and were +defeated. [Footnote: Strype, Annals, I., 500-505.] + +Then individual ministers began to disregard the law, and either to +neglect the use of certain requirements of the prayer-book altogether +or to change the forms there laid down. The archbishop and the Court of +High Commission issued detailed instructions insisting on observance of +the authorized form of worship; [Footnote: Prothero, Statutes and +Constitutional Documents, 191-194.] but the ministers declared that +they owed obedience to God rather than to man, and either resigned +their pastorates or, encouraged by their congregations, continued to +disobey the law and the archiepiscopal injunctions. It was at this time +and in this connection that the word "Puritan" came into use, as a term +of reproach for those who insisted on an ultra-pure ritual, purged from +all traces of the old religion. "Puritan" was used as "Pharisee" might +have been. [Footnote: Camden, Annals, year 1568.] + +From 1570 onward Puritanism entered upon a second stage, in the form of +a contest for changes in the organization of the established church. In +the main the same men who were dissatisfied with the liturgy of the +church began to oppose the system of its government by bishops and +archbishops. [Footnote: Letter from Sampson, formerly dean of Christ +Church, to Lord Burleigh, March 8, 1574, in Strype, Annals, III., 373.] +The "Admonition to Parliament" of 1572 declares that "as the names of +archbishops, archdeacons, lord bishops, chancellors, etc., are drawn +out of the pope's shop, together with their offices, so the government +which they use ... is anti-Christian and devilish and contrary to the +Scriptures. And as safely may we, by the warrant of God's words, +subscribe to allow the dominion of the pope universally to rule over +the word of God as an archbishop over a whole province or a lord bishop +over a diocese which containeth many shires and parishes. For the +dominion that they exercise ... is unlawful and expressly forbidden by +the word of God." [Footnote: Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional +Documents, 199.] + +The greater number of those who attacked the episcopal organization of +the church advocated the system of Presbyterianism which had been +extensively adopted on the Continent and recently introduced into +Scotland by the Book of Discipline. November 20, 1572, was erected at +Wandsworth, in Surrey, the first presbytery in England; [Footnote: +Bancroft, Dangerous Positions, chap, i., quoted in Prothero, Statutes +and Constitutional Documents, 247.] from this time forward presbyteries +were established here and there by groups of neighboring parishes. Some +ten or fifteen years later the larger group, known as the "classis," +was introduced; provincial and national "synods" were contemplated by +many of the Puritan clergy; and the English church bade fair to be +reorganized on Presbyterian lines, without the authority of the law. + +This action met the stern opposition of the queen and the Court of High +Commission. In 1583 Elizabeth appointed Whitgift archbishop of +Canterbury, and under him the law was enforced with rigor. Individual +clergymen were deposed or forced to conform; the devotional practices +called "exercises," on which Puritanism throve, were forbidden; and +although the contest continued, the introduction of Presbyterianism was +held in check. + +The latter years of Elizabeth's reign saw Puritanism within the church +taking on a new activity, by turning from questions of ceremony and +church government to questions of morals. The Puritans always stood for +greater earnestness and for the abolition of abuses in the church, but +as time passed on they brought into greater prominence the ascetic +ideal of life; the strict keeping of the Sabbath borrowed from the +Jewish ritual became customary; [Footnote: Eggleston, Beginners of a +Nation, 123-132.] prevailing immoralities and extravagances were more +bitterly reprobated in books, sermons, and parliamentary statutes; and +Puritanism took on that unlovely aspect of exaggerated austerity which +characterized its most conspicuous manifestations in the seventeenth +century. + +The great body of men of Puritan tendencies, both clergymen and laymen, +were deeply interested in reforming the church of England in liturgy, +in organization, and in practices; but they had no wish or intention to +break it up, to divide it into different bodies, or to withdraw +individually from its membership. They were as completely dominated by +the ideal of a single united national church, one in doctrine, +organization, and form of worship, as was the queen herself. +Nevertheless, a group of men arose among them, under the general name +of Independents, to whom the very idea of a national church seemed +idolatrous; who found in the Scriptures, or were driven by the logic of +their position, to one plan of church government only--the absolute +independence of each congregation of Christian believers. They looked +back to the little groups of chosen believers in Syria and Asia Minor, +the shadowy outlines of whose organization are found in the New +Testament; their imagination gave definite shape and their reverence +for the Scriptures gave divine authority to these as examples. +According to the analogy of biblical times, they looked upon themselves +as a remnant of saints, sacred and set apart from a wicked and +persecuting world. + +Some of these extreme Puritans were under the influence of Robert +Browne, a zealous advocate, whose activity lay principally between 1581 +and 1586. Others came under the somewhat more systematic teachings of +Barrow and Greenwood. Thus it became a fundamental principle of several +thousand persons, between 1580 and 1600, to separate themselves from +the established church. They are, therefore, known as "Separatists," +though they were more commonly called at that time, as a term of +reproach, by the names of their leaders, "Brownists" or "Barrowists." +They met in "conventicles," and even strove to form more permanent +congregations by gathering in secret places, or sometimes openly, in +defiance of the authorities. A churchman of the time says that they +teach "that the worship of the English church is flat idolatry; that we +admit into our church persons unsanctified; that our preachers have no +lawful calling; that our government is ungodly; that no bishop or +preacher preacheth Christ sincerely and truly; that the people of every +parish ought to choose their bishop, and that every elder, though he be +no doctor nor pastor, is a bishop." [Footnote: Paule, Life of Whitgift +(1612), 43, quoted in Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, +223.] + +In times when church and state were one, such teaching could not be +endured. If the Puritans were scourged with whips the Separatists were +lashed with scorpions. Their teachers were silenced and imprisoned, and +Barrow and Greenwood were, in 1587, hanged at Tyburn. Their +congregations were broken up and attendants at their conventicles were +fined, deprived of their property, and thrown into prison, where they +died by the score. Before Elizabeth's reign was over, the Separatists +had gone into exile or become but a persecuted remnant, so far, at +least, as outward manifestation extended; though one can scarcely doubt +that among Puritans generally, and even, perhaps, among those who still +adhered to the established church, were many who shared their +convictions. It is to be remembered that the Independents and all the +new sects which were formed in England later in the seventeenth +century, as well as the Puritans of New England, organized themselves +on the basis of independent congregations of Christian believers. + +The close of the sixteenth century saw the contrast between the +Anglican churchman on the one hand and the Puritan and Separatist on +the other becoming more harsh, their incompatibility more evident. +Fifty years earlier episcopacy and ceremonialism seemed to most +Anglicans comparatively unimportant in themselves. They rather blamed +the Puritans for making a difficulty about matters indifferent, and for +opposing the civil authority in things pertaining to conscience; but +did not quarrel with them on religious questions. But a generation of +disputes, the development of fundamental principles, the need for +justification of a position already taken, drove both parties into a +more dogmatic attitude. The high-church party in the established church +now began to assert the divine appointment of the episcopal office, to +lay stress on the doctrine of the apostolic succession, and gradually +to reintroduce much symbolic ceremonial. + +The Puritans, on the other hand, were more than ever convinced that the +system they advanced was based upon divine authority; and that the +church as it stood was founded upon human regulation only and must be +forced, if it could not be persuaded, to change its system. Still +greater clearness was given to this division of parties by the +theological contest that came into existence between 1600 and 1620. The +Puritans were almost completely Calvinist, and they claimed that the +established church itself had always been so. On the other hand, the +Anglican leaders of the early seventeenth century were Arminian, and +this form of theological doctrine was asserted by all those who +defended the existing organization and ceremonial practices of the +church. [Footnote: Makower, Constitutional History of the Church of +England, 75.] Thus the breach between the Puritan and the churchman was +now so wide that James I., indolent and arrogant for all his toleration +and learning, did nothing--perhaps could do nothing--towards its +closing. He said of the Puritans, at the Conference at Hampton Court in +1604: "I shall make them conform themselves or I will harry them out of +this land, or else do worse." [Footnote: Gardiner, Hist, of England, +I., 157.] He disappointed and angered them, drove them into opposition +to his civil rule as well as to his church policy, and strengthened +their number and their position by his treatment of Parliament, whose +interests and theirs had come to be inseparable. + +All the "antagonisms, religious and political," of the reign of James +were intensified in that of Charles I. The new king was more autocratic +and more unsympathetic with his subjects; Parliament was more self- +assertive and more determined to impose its wishes upon king and +ministers; the authorities of the established church were more +intolerant towards the Puritans and milder towards the Catholics. The +Puritans, on the other hand, were more convinced that the Anglican +church was retrograding towards Catholicism, and more determined to +destroy episcopacy if they should ever be able to do so. + +The freest opportunity of the established church to destroy Puritanism +came during the period of the personal government of Charles, from 1629 +to 1640, when Parliament had no meetings, and when the Court of Star +Chamber, the High Commission, and the Privy Council were the all- +powerful instruments of an administration sympathetic with the high- +church party. The oppressions of the Puritans were now at their height, +and the prospect of ever obtaining freedom to worship as they chose +seemed the darkest. With the most prominent liberal and Puritan leaders +imprisoned for their political opinions, like Sir John Eliot, or lying +in prison, crushed under enormous fines, like Prynne; with the courts +subservient to the royal will; with court preachers declaring the duty +of passive obedience to the government; with Laud guiding the policy of +the king in all ecclesiastical matters,--the state of the Puritans +might well seem hopeless, and they might well look towards some distant +land as a place for the establishment of a purified national church. + +Archbishop Laud typified and embodied the spirit of the dominant +church, and in addition he had unwearied energy, industry, and +determination. Sincere, practical, and brave, but narrow-minded and +unsympathetic, he set about the work of reducing the church of England +to absolute uniformity in accordance with the law as he interpreted it. +The Nonconformists had no rest; Puritan clergymen must conform; Puritan +laymen must suffer under the power of the church, which, dominated by +its bishops and wedded to its idols, was becoming steadily more +powerful and all-inclusive. The reign of Charles was not marked by the +passage of harsher laws against the Puritans, but it was distinguished +from all periods that preceded or followed it by the continuous, +steady, and thorough-going application of those already in existence. + +It was under this regime that the great Puritan migration to America +took place. The Puritans represented a class of society which was much +more ready to emigrate than the Catholics. As early as 1597 some +imprisoned Brownists sent a petition to the Privy Council asking that +they might be allowed to settle in America; and four men of the same +persuasion even went on a voyage to examine the land. [Footnote: +Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation, 167.] In 1608 many Puritans seem to +have prepared to emigrate to Virginia, when by Archbishop Bancroft's +influence they were forbidden by the king to go, except with his +express permission in each individual case. [Footnote: Stith, Hist, of +Virginia, book II., year 1608.] + +The Separatists early became wanderers on the face of the earth, a now +famous group of them leaving their English homes for Amsterdam, +migrating thence to Leyden, and then, after hesitating between a Dutch +and an English colony and between North and South America, a portion +settling themselves on Plymouth Harbor. [Footnote: Griffis, Pilgrims in +Their Three Homes.] In all the history of early colonization there have +been few such occasions as that of the year 1638, when fourteen ships +bound for New England lay in the Thames at one time, and when three +thousand settlers reached Boston within the same year. [Footnote: +Authorities quoted in Eggleston, The Beginners of a Nation, 344] Almost +all the Englishmen who were ever to emigrate to New England left their +homes during the twelve years between 1628 and 1640. Unfavorable +economic conditions at home and the prospect of greater prosperity in +the colony doubtless had their influence; but of the more than twenty +thousand who passed from the old England to New England during that +time, it is fair to presume that by far the greater number were more or +less influenced by their Puritan opinions. + +The most decisive proof of this motive for emigration is the slacking +of the tide of Puritan expatriation after 1640. When Parliament, after +eleven years of intermission, met in that year at Westminster in the +full appreciation of its power, one of its first actions was to order +the impeachment and arrest of Archbishop Laud. At last the Puritans had +their turn, and the assembling of Parliament found them no longer a +scattered, disorganized, diversified element in the English church and +nation; but, thanks to long persecution, a compact body, austere in +morals, dogmatic in religious belief, ready to make use of political +means for religious ends, and determined to impose their asceticism and +their orthodoxy on the English people so far as they might be able. +[Footnote: Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation, 133.] + +A majority of Parliament, small but sufficient, were Puritans, as had +probably been true of every Parliament for many years, had they been +free to act. Their intentions showed themselves in a prompt inception +of reforms in the church, and the burdens of official ecclesiastical +oppression were rapidly transferred to the shoulders of those who had +previously bound the loads upon Puritan backs. In 1641 orders were +issued by the House of Commons for the demolition of all images, +altars, and crucifixes. [Footnote: Commons Journals, II., 279.] A +commission known as the "Committee of Scandalous Ministers" was +appointed, and proceeded to discipline the clergy and to harass the +universities. Demands for the harsher treatment of priests and Jesuits +were soon followed by plans for the diminution of the power of +archbishops and bishops of the established church. The Court of High +Commission was abolished July 5, 1641. [Footnote: 16 Chas. I., chap. +ii.] The archbishops and bishops were removed from the House of Lords +and the Privy Council by the act of February 13, 1642. [Footnote: +Ibid., chap, xxvii.] + +The Solemn League and Covenant of September 25, 1643, pledged +Parliament and the leaders of the now dominant party to extirpate +"church government by archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and +commissaries, deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and all other +ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy"; and to reform +religion in England "in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, +according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed +churches." [Footnote: League and Covenant, Sub Section 1, 2.] + +By this time the quarrel between Charles and Parliament had been put to +the arbitrament of the sword, and the distinction of Cavalier and +Roundhead to a certain extent superseded that between Anglican and +Puritan. In 1645 came the catastrophe of Naseby, then the long series +of futile negotiations ending in the execution of the king at Whitehall +in 1649. From the general confusion emerged the commonwealth, "without +any king or House of Lords," the church organized on Presbyterian +lines, the spirit of Puritanism dominating, although there was +toleration for every form of Christian belief, "provided this liberty +be not extended to popery or prelacy." [Footnote: Instrument of +Government, Section 37.] For full twenty years the Anglican church was +under a cloud, first Presbyterianism and then Independency being the +official form of the church of England. The ill-fortunes of the +royalist party in the civil war and under the commonwealth, and the +religious oppression imposed by the Puritans upon churchmen, now +combined to send to the colonies the very classes which had so recently +been the persecutors. From 1640 to 1660 Virginia, Maryland, and the +Carolinas received an influx of English churchmen escaping from +conditions at home as intolerable to them as, those which drove the +Pilgrims and Puritans to New England during the previous decades. + +The commonwealth was not merely a triumph of Puritanism, it was a +birth-time of new religious sects. The excitement of a period of civil +war, the breaking down of old standards, the disappearance of old +authority, the opportunities offered by the quasi-democracy of the +commonwealth, the preoccupation of the seventeenth-century mind with +questions of religion, all combined to cause almost a complete +disintegration of religious organization. Here and there a man began to +preach religious truth and duty as they looked to him; he obtained +adherents, a congregation was organized, the tenets of this body +spread, and branches were formed; till shortly a new religious society +had come into existence, with its creed, organization, missionary +spirit, and more or less vigorous hope of converting all men and +absorbing all other religious organizations. An almost indefinite +number of such religious bodies arose during the middle years of the +seventeenth century--Millenarians or Fifth Monarchy Men, Baptists or +Anabaptists, Quakers, Ranters, Notionists, Familists, Perfectists, and +others. Most of them died out within the brief period which gave them +birth, but some survived to become great religious denominations, +extending into America as well as throughout England. [Footnote: Gooch, +English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century, chap. viii.] + +Of these the Quakers are the most interesting in their relations to the +New World. The spirit from which they arose was closely similar to that +which gave birth to the Baptists of England, the Anabaptists, +Mennonites, Pietists, and Quietists of the Continent. Their movement +was an extreme revolt against the formalism, corporate character, and +externality of established religion. It contained a deep element of +mysticism. The Quakers declared all believers, irrespective of +learning, sex, or official appointment, to be priests. [Footnote: Fox, +Letters, No. 249.] They asserted the adequacy of the "inner light" to +guide every man in his faith and in his actions. They opposed all forms +and ceremonies, even many of those of ordinary courtesy and fashion, +such as removing the hat or conforming the garb to changing custom. + +George Fox, the representative of these ideas, began his public +preaching in 1648, and his doctrines at once found wide acceptance. In +1652 there were said to be twenty-five Quaker preachers passing through +the country; by 1654 there were sixty, some of whom were women, who, by +the principles of their teachings, should preach as freely as men. +Their missionary journeys led them to Scotland and Ireland, and later +even to Holland and Germany and the far east of Europe. Organization +among the Quakers proceeded somewhat slowly. This was due partly to the +individualist character of their beliefs, partly to the lack of +constructive interest on the part of Fox and the other leaders during +the early period of their missionary work. Nevertheless, "meetings" +were gradually organized, took definite shape, and kept up regular +communication with one another, so that there came to be a net-work of +such bodies over the whole country. In 1659 it is estimated that there +were thirty thousand Quakers in England. + +Notwithstanding the religious liberty guaranteed by the Instrument of +Government of 1653, the teachings and practices of the Quaker preachers +brought them into much turmoil. Their vituperation of the clergy, their +intrusion into church services and ceremonies, already reduced only too +frequently to confusion by the rapid changes of the time, their +objection to the payment of tithes, their refusal to take an oath, +their outspoken denunciation of all whose actions they disapproved, the +prominence of women in their propaganda, and, in early times, +suspicions that they were connected with political plots, could not but +subject them to ridicule, abuse, and actual persecution. They +habitually violated numerous laws on the statute-book, ranging from +those requiring good order to those forbidding what was construed as +blasphemy. They were, therefore, beaten and stoned by the mob; abused, +fined, and imprisoned by the magistrates; ridiculed and prosecuted by +the clergy; subjected to starvation, exposure, and other hardships by +sheriffs and jailers. [Footnote: Besse, Sufferings of the Quakers, I., +chaps, iii., iv, xi., xviii., II, chap. i., etc.] + +In 1660 Charles II. was recalled to the throne. This event was a +restoration of the church even more than a restoration of the monarchy. +The royal power could never again be what it had been before the civil +war, the execution of a king, and the establishment of a republic. But +the church, with the longevity and recuperative power of all religious +organizations, arose again to a life apparently as vigorous and +despotic as in the times of Laud. The year 1662 found four thousand two +hundred Quakers in the jails of England; [Footnote: Sewel, Hist. of the +Quakers, 346.] and the popular reaction against the austerity of the +Puritan regime subjected Quakers to much ill-treatment by the rabble. + +Yet just at this juncture the dignity of the body was strengthened and +its power of self-assertion increased by the adherence to it of men of +higher education and social position. The Quakers of the commonwealth +period were almost all of the middle and lower-middle or trading +classes. Soon after the Restoration a number of men of good family and +some means threw in their fortunes with the persecuted sect. One of +them, Robert Barclay, reduced to order and system the scattered and +incoherent statements of its theology. In his Apology, published in +1675, he set forth a logical and consistent statement of beliefs, +couched in clear and graceful language and supported by calm reasoning +and example. [Footnote: Thomas, Hist. of the Society of Friends in +America, chap ii., 200, 201.] Of the same class was William Penn, an +educated, wealthy, polished, and genial English gentleman. Yet he was +also a serious-minded and devout Quaker preacher, missionary, and +writer, and as he saw and shared in the sufferings of the faithful he +might well despair of better conditions in England and think of a "Holy +Experiment" in America, where Quakers from 1675 onward were settling in +West New Jersey. [Footnote: Fiske, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies, II., +99, 167; Andrews, Colonial Self-Government, chap. vii.] + +Under Charles II. the attitude of the king was favorable to the +Quakers, while in the short reign of James II. they had the great +advantage of the personal friendship of the king for Penn. Yet no +matter what should be the favor of the king, or even their more +moderate treatment by the authorities of the established church, +Quakers could not hope for material comfort or ease of mind in +surroundings so alien to their ideals as England was in the last +decades of the seventeenth century. They, still more than the Puritans +in the time of Laud or the churchmen in the time of Cromwell, suffered +because of the incongruity of the ordinary law and custom with their +ideals. It was the realization of this incompatibility, along with the +attraction of a community under Quaker government, cheap and abundant +land, a promise of a growing population and lucrative business +opportunities that set flowing to Pennsylvania the tide of Quaker +emigration and created in a few years a great Quaker commonwealth in +America. + +Besides Puritans, Anglicans, and Quakers, another great stream of +emigration poured into the central colonies of America--the +Presbyterian Scotch-Irish. To understand their coming, it is necessary +to return to the early years of the seventeenth century and to consider +the policy of James I. towards rebellious Ireland. At the opening of, +his reign James found in Ireland an opportunity to plant a colony near +home. [Footnote: Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, 130-135.] When Englishmen +and Scotchmen had been established in Ireland, the Irish sore would be +healed, and that restless Catholic community be transformed into an +outlying district of England. The "Plantation of Ulster" began in 1611. +The titles of the natives were ruthlessly forfeited, the six counties +of the province of Ulster were re-divided, and the land was re-granted +to proprietors who engaged to settle colonists from England and +Scotland upon it according to a fixed system. + +This system was skilfully devised and rigidly carried out. It required +the new land-owners to establish freeholders, small tenants, laborers, +and artisans upon the soil in proportion to the amount of land they +received, allowing only a certain minimum number of the Irish natives +to be retained as laborers. The proprietors were largely merchants of +London and merchandising noblemen of the court; the tenants they +introduced were mostly from the towns and country districts of the +north of England and the lowlands of Scotland. Men of Puritan +tendencies showed the same readiness to emigrate to Ireland that they +showed soon afterwards as to New England, and as a result the settlers +of Ulster, during the first two decades of the seventeenth century, +were almost universally Presbyterians. + +Under these new and somewhat anomalous conditions a population grew up +in the north of Ireland which was almost as distinct in race and +religious organization from the people of England and Scotland as it +was from the Catholic and Celtic population which it had displaced. Its +religion, without being proscribed, was not acknowledged, for +Anglicanism was the established church of Ireland, though it numbered +but few adherents. Ulster's industrial interests were, from the +beginning, subordinated to those of England, as completely as were +those of the natives. [Footnote: Cunningham, Growth of English Industry +and Commerce, II., 136.] As the century progressed the economic evils +under which the Scotch-Irish suffered became more pronounced. The +navigation acts were so interpreted as to exclude Ireland from all +their advantages and to cut her off from any direct trade with the +colonies. Tobacco-growing was forbidden, and the exportation of cattle +to England placed under prohibitory duties. The wool manufacture was +crushed by heavy export taxes, and the linen manufacture neglected or +discouraged. In 1642 and again in 1689 came war and new conquests of +the country, to add to its disorganization and chronic sufferings. +Kidnapping, enforced service in the colonies, and traffic in political +prisoners were indulged in by the government. Ireland, as a dwelling- +place for Catholics or Protestants, for Celts or Saxons, for natives or +English and Scotch settlers, was a country of ever-renewed distress. + +To economic disabilities is to be added religious persecution of a mild +type, especially after 1689. All the laws that interfered with the +religious equality of the Presbyterians in England were extended to +Ireland; and they seemed more vexatious there because in Ulster the +Presbyterians were in the vast majority and the established church +almost unrepresented, except by tithe collectors and absentee +landlords. At the close of the seventeenth century there were more than +a million Ulster Presbyterians. But soon, as a result of this combined +economic and religious oppression, they began to migrate in a narrow +stream which by 1720 became a wide river. They formed the largest body +of emigrants that left Europe for the American colonies. Before the +eighteenth century was over the Presbyterian population of Ireland was +reduced by at least a half; [Footnote: Fiske, The Dutch and Quaker +Colonies in America, II., 354.] and the missing moiety was to be found +scattered along the whole line of the Appalachian mountain-chain, at +the backbone of the English colonies, extending eastward and westward +and forming a prolific and influential element of the American people. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF ENGLAND (1500-1689) + + +An earlier chapter of this work has been devoted to the political +institutions of Spain, France, and the Netherlands, and each had its +share of influence on American history; but it is England from which +the American nation really sprang, of which it was for more than a +century and a half a dependency, and to whose traditions, institutions, +and government we must look back for the origins of our own. The oldest +political institution in England is the monarchy. Older than +Parliament, older than the law-courts, older than the division of the +country into shires, the monarchy dates back to the consolidation of +the petty Anglo-Saxon states in the ninth century--and these were +themselves kingdoms. + +At no time in this long course of English history were the claims of +the monarchy more exorbitant than under James I. and Charles I., from +1603 to 1642, just when the tide of immigration began to flow towards +America, and when the governments of the colonies were being +established. "What God hath joined, then, let no man separate. I am the +husband and all the whole isle is my lawful wife. I am the head and it +is my body. I am the shepherd and it is my flock. . . ." [Footnote: +Prothero, Select Statutes, 283.] So King James wove metaphors, when he +addressed Parliament at its opening in 1604. When disputes had arisen +in 1610 he declared: "The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon +earth, for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and sit upon +God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods. ... As to +dispute what God may do is blasphemy, ... so is it sedition in subjects +to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power." "Encroach +not upon the prerogative of the crown; if there falls out a question +that concerns my prerogative or mystery of state, deal not with it till +you consult with the king or his council, or both, for they are +transcendent matters." [Footnote: Ibid., 293, 294.] + +This absolute prerogative of the king was attributed to him by others, +as well as claimed by himself. Dr. Cowell, professor of civil law at +Cambridge, declared that the king "is above the law by his absolute +power"; [Footnote: Cowell, Interpreter, under word "king."] and Sir +Walter Raleigh wrote that attempts to bind the king by law justified +his breach of it, "his charters and other instruments being no other +than the surviving witnesses of unconstrained will." [Footnote: +Raleigh, Prerogative of Parliament, Preface.] But this definition of +the prerogative of the king was an exaggerated description of his real +position in the English system of government, and was either academic +or argumentative. As properly used, absolute monarchy merely meant an +all-powerful not an autocratic government; government was supreme, but +the king was not necessarily supreme in the government. As government +had been developed in England, in the course of time it had grown up +around the monarchy as its centre and found in it its embodiment. + +In Anglo-Saxon England government was crude and embryonic, but even +then the king held a general oversight over the exercise of its few +functions. In the later Middle Ages, when government was somewhat more +highly developed, its more numerous functions, in so far as they were +not performed by feudal lords or church officials, were fulfilled by +the king. It was by the monarchy that the law-courts were formed and +commissioned, that Parliament was summoned and given the opportunity +for self-development, that the system of taxation and of military life +was organized. The great advance in the organization and effectiveness +of government which marked the reigns of the Tudor rulers consisted in +the elaboration and increased activity of the administrative or royal +element in the government. + +The royal prerogative might, therefore, be conceived of as the function +of keeping the machine of government running. The king was the director +and controller of an aggregate of governmental powers. All officials +were commissioned in his name, and those of higher rank were actually +selected and appointed by him. All foreign intercourse was carried on +in his name, and in the main directed by him; Parliament was called, +prorogued, and adjourned at his will, and he kept at least a negative +control over its actions. All justice, was exercised in his name, and +his interests and known wishes sometimes influenced decisions. All +charters, whether to cities, to guilds, to possessors of mercantile +monopolies, or to commercial and colonizing companies, were issued +under his name and seal, and the powers granted in them could not be in +opposition to his will. [Footnote: Smith, The Commonwealth of England, +book I., chap, ix., book II., chap. iv.] + +The powers of the king were, therefore, very real, even if the +philosophic contentions of James and other theorists be disregarded; +but they were powers restricted in every direction by actual +conditions, and exercised through ministers whose familiarity with +precedent, whose control over the details of administration, whose +dignified offices, and whose personal weight of judgment and character +made them, though nominally servants of the king, a real power in the +government. + +Much of the royal power was exercised through the three great law- +courts, King's Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas; through the courts +of equity, held by the chancellor, the master of the rolls, and the +master of requests; through the half-administrative, half-judicial +bodies, the council of the north and the council of the marches of +Wales, and through the circuit courts of assize. Much was exercised +through higher and lower administrative officers, through the +Exchequer, and through lower offices such as the wardrobe and the +admiralty. + +But the real centre of gravity of the executive powers of the +government at this time is to be found in the Council or Privy Council, +two terms which are used indiscriminately. [Footnote: Dicey, The Privy +Council, 80] This body was made up of seventeen or eighteen members, +including all the great ministers of state, the lord chancellor, or, as +he was sometimes called, lord keeper of the great seal, the high +treasurer, the two secretaries, the great master and the comptroller of +the household, the chamberlain and the great admiral, besides a certain +number chosen as members of the Privy Council without otherwise +occupying office. [Footnote: Acts of the Privy Council, 1594-1597] +There were usually from six to ten members of the council present, the +membership of some of the ministers being somewhat perfunctory. + +As a body, however, its services were as far from perfunctory as can +well be conceived. Its sessions were held almost daily and its sphere +of activity was apparently coextensive with the life of England and of +all its dependencies. Scarcely an interest, public or private, escapes +its attention, whether it is the organization of a campaign in France +or the settlement of a family quarrel between father and son; +[Footnote: Acts of the Privy Council, 1591-1592, pp 160, 193, 256-258, +292, 327, 414, 476, etc.] whether it is "Sir John Norreis, knight, and +Thomas Diggs, esquire," or a Lord Morley, or the chief baron of the +Court of Exchequer, Lord Manwood, or some merchants or poor artisans or +an "Elice Gailer, of Berton, yeoman," that appear before the council at +its summons; whether it is engaged in formulating rules for articles +contraband of war, or trying to put an end to illicit coinage on the +borders of Wales; whether engaged in one or other of a hundred +different interests, the council is always active, intrusive, and high- +handed. [Footnote: Ibid, 231, 305, 314, 378, 449, 572.] It regulated +manufactures and trade, protected foreigners, disciplined recusants, +kept the oversight of customs and other officials, settled disputes +between colleges and their tenants, bishops, deans, and government +officers, instructed sheriffs and justices of the peace as to their +duty, made provision for the keeping up of military and naval forces, +and performed other duties so numerous and varied as to defy +enumeration or classification. + +A special duty of the Privy Council was to keep up correspondence with +the officials of outlying districts under the dominion of the crown and +not within the systematic administration of sheriffs, assize courts, +justices of the peace, or other regular governance. These regions +included the marches of Wales and of Scotland, certain counties of +England, Ireland, and the Channel Islands, the last two of these having +been placed under the direct supervision of the Privy Council by +statute. [Footnote: Poynings's Act (1495), Dicey, The Privy Council, +90.] As colonies grew up they fell, naturally, under the special care +of the Privy Council. The duty of hearing appeals from colonial courts +became and is still a duty of the council; to the Privy Council were +referred colonial laws for approval or veto; and the successive bodies +formed for the oversight of the colonies, culminating in the Board of +Trade and Plantations of 1696, were either committees of the Privy +Council or boards acting under its control and reporting to it. + +Although most of this control over the colonies was still far in the +future, the power exercised by the council over England's nearest +dependency, Ireland, may fairly be taken as anticipatory of it. Irish +matters during the later years of Queen Elizabeth and the early years +of James I. demanded much attention and time from the Privy Council, +notwithstanding the existence of an Irish Parliament, a lord deputy, +various provincial officials, and the whole framework of a subordinate +government in Ireland. All the variety of cases that came before the +council from England were duplicated from Ireland. In fact, Ireland was +treated much as if it were an English county, or better, perhaps, one +of those regions of England, like the marches of Wales, which had a +somewhat peculiar jurisdiction. + +The most important form of oversight of Ireland exercised by the Privy +Council was that based upon "Poynings's Act" of 1495. Sir Edward +Poynings, a type of that class of vigorous officials of middle rank +which were such useful instruments of the Tudor government, was sent, +in 1494, to Ireland as lord deputy; the next year he called a +parliament at Drogheda and obtained its assent to a number of statutes +designed to introduce order into that disturbed country, and to make +real the power of English government by diminishing that of the +turbulent lords of the Pale. [Footnote: Morris, Hist. of Ireland, 1496- +1868, pp. 58-63.] As a means of reaching the latter object, the Irish +Parliament, which had long been under their control and which had +lately made some assertion of its right of independent action, +[Footnote: Irish Statutes, 37 Henry VI.] was to be curbed, and that by +its own ordinance. + +It was therefore enacted that in the future no bill should be +introduced into the Irish Parliament unless its heads had first been +submitted to the English Privy Council and obtained the approval of +that body and of the king. [Footnote: Irish Statutes, 10 Henry VII., +chap. iv.] Moreover, this approval must be given before Parliament met. +This reduced the Irish Parliament to a mere registering body for royal +enactments. In 1556 an explanatory act was passed [Footnote: Irish +Statutes, 3 and 4 Philip and Mary, chap. iv.] amending Poynings's Act +so far as to make it allowable for the Irish Parliament to pass any +bills which had received the approval of the crown and of the English +Privy Council at any time during its session. The regular practice of +Irish legislation under these acts was as follows: any member of either +house of the Irish Parliament might bring in heads of a bill, which, if +approved by both houses, were submitted to the viceroy, who referred +them to the Irish Privy Council; that body sent them, altered or +unaltered, to the king, who referred them to the English Privy Council; +this body then approved, rejected, or modified them; and they were +returned, through the viceroy, to the Irish Parliament in the form of a +bill, to be accepted or rejected as a whole, but not to be further +modified. [Footnote: Walpole, Kingdom of Ireland, 253, 254.] + +By this cumbrous method only could the Irish Parliament legislate. It +was, moreover, subject not only to the English Privy Council, but to +the English Parliament. One of the clauses of Poynings's Act had +provided that all statutes which up to that time had been passed by the +English Parliament should bind Ireland also. [Footnote: Irish Statutes, +10 Henry VII., chap. xxii.] Many laws were subsequently passed by the +English Parliament for Ireland, thus ignoring the Irish Parliament; but +it was not till later than the period we are considering that a claim +of the superiority of the English Parliament was definitely made. In +the eighteenth century a member of the Irish Parliament published a +book called The Case of Ireland Being Bound by Acts of Parliament in +England Stated. This was formally condemned by the English Parliament +and ordered to be burned by the common hangman. [Footnote: Walpole, +Kingdom of Ireland, 252.] When still later the Irish House of Lords +protested against the reversal of one of its judgments, on appeal, by +the English House of Lords, the English Parliament, in 1720, passed an +act depriving the Irish House of Lords of any appellate jurisdiction, +and declaring that "the English Parliament had, hath, and of right +ought to have full power and authority to make laws and statutes of +sufficient force and validity to bind the people of Ireland" [Footnote: +6 George I., chap, v.]--a precedent of portentous applicability to the +American colonies when a similar question came up in regard to them a +half-century later. The power of Parliament over external dependencies +was destined to come into greater prominence in the future. The +question at issue at the beginning of the seventeenth century was the +extent of its power over England itself. Was it, like the Privy +Council, the law-courts, and other such bodies, merely a creation and +dependency of the crown? Or was it, although in form an assembly of +royal councillors, meeting only when the king summoned it and ceasing +to exist when he ordered its dissolution, a branch of the government +co-ordinate with or even in certain relations superior to him? + +In the organization of Parliament there were several grave +deficiencies, if it were to be considered an independent body. It was a +composite assembly of two ill-related parts. The House of Lords, which +consisted at this time of some fifty members, [Footnote: D'Ewes, +Journals, 599] had an existence as a royal council quite apart from the +House of Commons, and there were still many evidences that it was the +original body and the House of Commons a later accretion. In 1601, when +Elizabeth appeared in the House of Lords to open her last Parliament, +the Commons, who were waiting in their own chamber, did not hear of her +presence promptly, and when they hastened to the Lords' chamber the +door was closed and they could not obtain admission, so they "returned +back again into their own House much discontented." [Footnote: Ibid, +620.] The Lords had various privileges and constitutional rights of +their own: as individuals, of trial by peers, of being represented by +proxies, of entering individual protests, of audience with the +sovereign, of certain advantages of procedure in the courts of common +law; as a body, of trying impeachments brought by the House of Commons, +and of acting as a final court of appeal for all lower courts whether +of law or equity. [Footnote: Pike, Constitutional History of the House +of Lords, chaps. ix., xi.-xiv.] + +The House of Commons was composed of two knights or gentlemen elected +for each shire; and one or two representatives for each of nearly three +hundred cities and boroughs. The system of representation was crude and +antiquated. The knights of the shire were elected by the "forty- +shilling freeholders"--that is to say, by all who had a tenure +approaching ownership in lands whose annual rental value reached that +sum. This was an electorate that reached far down in the social scale, +but it was limited by the tendency of English land to remain in the +hands of large owners, and by the influence, legitimate and +illegitimate, of the gentry, the great county noble families, and the +crown. The knights of the shire, therefore, as a matter of fact, not +only belonged to, but were elected by and reflected the interests and +feelings of, the great body of rural gentry; while the yeomen exercised +little influence in Parliament, as the laboring classes certainly +exercised none at all. + +There were vast differences in the system of election by the towns +which were represented in Parliament, varying all the way from +appointment by patrons, in some towns, down through divers grades of +extension of the franchise to an almost universal suffrage in a few. +Nevertheless, from the towns, as from the counties, it was +representatives of the upper and middle classes that sat in the +Commons. There was no approach to equality in the constituencies +represented in the House of Commons; members were elected often by +outside influence and always by a narrow constituency, and no control +was possessed by the electors over their representatives. + +Yet these defects were more apparent than real. The special powers of +the House of Lords were becoming shadowy, and almost the only real +significance of the peerage was when it was united with the House of +Commons and made a part of the larger whole of Parliament. [Footnote: +36 and 37 Henry VIII., f. 60 (Dyer, Reports, pt. i, 327).] + +In the House of Commons was the real source of power of Parliament. +Whatever the imperfections in the method of election, whatever the +irregularity of constituencies, whatever the crudity of the idea of +representation, the five hundred or more knights, country gentlemen, +lawyers, and merchants who made up the Commons at this time [Footnote: +Names of Members Returned to Serve in Parliament, pt. i., 442-448.] +were convinced that in some way they stood for the whole nation. When +Parliament had been once summoned and organized, it became a body with +three hundred years of precedent back of it; and in the days of the +Stuarts it confronted the king with claims to a very different position +and power from those he was inclined to concede to it. So far from +assimilating their position to that of the law-courts, Privy Council, +and other such bodies, at the very opening of the reign of James the +Commons declared "there is not the highest standing court in this land +that ought to enter into competency either for dignity or authority +with this high court of Parliament which with your Majesty's royal +assent gives laws to other courts, but from other courts receives +neither laws nor orders." [Footnote: Apology of the Commons, 1604; +Petyt, Jus Parliamentarium, 227-247.] + +The course of time intensified this difference of opinion. "Set chairs +for the ambassadors," James cried, mockingly, when the deputies from +the House of Commons visited him with a petition during the dispute of +1621. To the king Parliament seemed to be making a claim to sovereignty +against which the only proper argument was a jest. Shortly afterwards +he wrote to the speaker of the House of Commons, "These are, therefore, +to command you to make known in our name unto the House that none +therein shall presume henceforth to meddle with anything concerning our +government or deep matters of state." He insisted that "these are unfit +things to be handled in Parliament except your king requires it of you. +"As to the privileges of Parliament James wrote, "We cannot allow +of the style calling it your ancient and undoubted right and +inheritance, but could rather have wished that ye had said that your +privileges were derived from the grace and permission of our ancestors +and us." [Footnote: Letter of the king to the House of Commons, +December 10,1621.] + +The Commons, on the other hand, a week later, placed this protestation +on their minutes: "That the liberties, privileges, and jurisdictions of +Parliament are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of +the subjects of England, and that the arduous and urgent affairs +concerning the king, state, and defence of the realm, and of the church +of England and the maintenance and making of laws, and redress of +mischiefs and grievances which daily happen within this realm, are +proper subjects and matters of counsel and debate in Parliament; and +that in the handling and proceeding of those businesses every member of +the House of Parliament hath and of right ought to have freedom of +speech to propound, treat, reason, and bring to conclusion the same." +[Footnote: Rushworth, Historical Collections, I., 53.] It is true that +James sent for the Journal and tore this page from its records, but he +could not tear the belief in its statements from the hearts of a great +part of the people of England. + +King and Parliament held diametrically opposite views of their relative +powers, and both appealed to the past in justification of their +opinions. But England's past was a long story, and its successive +chapters read very variously. James appealed to the immediate past to +justify his possession of the "inseparable rights and prerogatives +annexed to our imperial crown, whereof, not only in the times of other +our progenitors, but in the blessed reign of our late predecessor, that +renowned queen Elizabeth, we found our crown actually possessed." +[Footnote: King's proclamation on dissolving Parliament, January +6,1622.] The leaders of the House of Commons, on the other hand, were +looking back to a more remote past, the birth-time and period of +acknowledgment by the crown of the parliamentary privileges and English +liberties which now seemed to them endangered. + +As a matter of fact, Parliament, like all other political institutions +in England, had grown up around the monarchy. Primarily, the Houses +were a body of advisers of the king, summoned by him to give their +counsel in matters in which he needed the advice of the various classes +of his subjects; and to give their consent to taxation, which would +require sacrifice on the part of the people. Once organized, however, +Parliament gathered into itself all the shadowy survivals of self- +government coming down from a still earlier period; it reflected the +local independence of the towns and counties which sent members to the +House of Commons, and the corporate rights of the church and individual +privileges of the nobility, which constituted its upper house; it +served as the instrument by which the nation at various times protected +itself against bad government; it embodied the fifteenth-century ideal +of a government conjointly by king and estates of the realm. + +Moreover, Parliament gained by repeated use and acknowledgment an +established procedure and powers, well-understood rights, and +precedents frequently invoked. The four fundamental privileges of +members of Parliament were: (1) freedom of elections: (2) freedom from +arrest during the sessions; (3) freedom of speech in debate; (4) +freedom of access to the sovereign for their speaker, if not for all +individually. These were frequently acknowledged by the sovereign at +the opening of Parliament and enrolled upon its records, and still more +frequently asserted in the House. [Footnote: D'Ewes, Journals, 65, 66, +175, 236, 259, 411, 460, etc; Petyt, Jus Parliamentarium, 227-243, +quoted in Prothero, Select Statutes, 289; Commons Journals, I., 431, +etc.] The powers of Parliament were less clearly defined than its +privileges; but its control over taxation and legislation, its right to +impeach the king's ministers and to discuss all matters of interest to +the nation, were frequently asserted, and usually conceded. [Footnote: +Gneist, Hist. of the English Constitution, chaps. v., xxxii.] Thus +Parliament was much more than a royal council; it was a body with +claims to co-ordinate powers of government. How far, at any one time, +these privileges and powers were conceded, how far they were denied or +encroached upon by the crown, was largely dependent on circumstances. +These circumstances during Tudor times had been such as to put the +initiative and much of the actual power of government in the hands of +the king, and parliamentary powers were largely in abeyance. Parliament +during this time was a conservative body; the monarchy was the +innovating element of the state. + +Circumstances changed with the closing years of the sixteenth century +and favored an increase of parliamentary participation in government. +With all her prestige the old queen herself had to feel it. [Footnote: +D'Ewes, Journals, 602.] With the accession of the half-foreign Stuarts, +with the cessation of danger of invasion from abroad, with the +increasing weight of exactions of an unwise and unpopular personal +government, with the growing interest of the seventeenth century in +matters of politics, and, above all, with the development of +Puritanism, individualistic and self-assertive in its very essence, +Parliament was sure to reassert all the powers which it had ever +possessed, and likely to seek to extend them. The king was now the +conservative element, while Parliament, if recent conditions be taken +as the standard, was the innovating party. + +It was exactly at this period of contest and of unsettled balance of +powers that the early settlements were made in America. The colonists +represented almost without exception what might be called the +parliamentarian view. It was not the king, the--courtiers, the nobles, +the judges, the higher clergy, the official classes, and the fellows of +the universities that emigrated. Among these the royalist spirit was +strong, but they remained in England. It was rather from the middle and +lower classes, from those who were on poor terms with the king, +whatever their position in society, from the persecuted, the +dissatisfied, the restless, that the great body of colonists was drawn; +and among these classes the views upheld by the House of Commons were +wide-spread. The same thing was true of those companies which, +remaining in England, yet had so much influence over the destinies of +the American colonies. The most influential elements in the Virginia +Company, the Massachusetts Bay Company, and other similar bodies were +distinctly opposed to the high claims of the king. Yet unanimity did +not exist even among those who, left England; and strong as the +predilection was among the founders of America for self-government and +representative institutions, the Old-World differences of view were +transferred to the colonies and played a part in local struggles there. + +Much of the disputation between James and the House of Commons +concerned the privileges of Parliament, and might be suspected of being +largely the natural jealousy of its own rights felt and asserted by an +ancient corporation. But Parliament was waging war for larger objects +than the rights of its own body; it felt itself to be defending in its +own privileges the personal rights of all Englishmen. In the contested +election case of 1604 a member declared that "the case of Sir John +Fortescue and Sir Francis Goodwin has become the case of the whole +kingdom." [Footnote: Commons Journals, I, 159, March 30, 1604] "The +rights and liberties of your subjects of England and the privileges of +this House," is a formula that appears frequently in the documents of +the time, and combines the two objects of the contest, in which the +latter were upheld largely because they supported and protected the +former. + +These ancient rights of the people were less definite than either the +privileges or the powers of Parliament. They were, perhaps, attractive +and valued somewhat in proportion to their vagueness. They certainly +included right of freedom from arrest or imprisonment except on a +definite charge and by due process of law; they included exemption from +taxation except after consent of Parliament, [Footnote: Hakewell's +argument in the Bates case of 1610 (State Trials, ed 1779, XI); +Petition of Right of 1628] they included protection against violence +and injustice; they included the right of petition to the king against +any grievance, [Footnote: Coke's speech on Petition of Right +(Parliamentary History, VIII., 104). VOL 1--19] and in general a right +to have the laws enforced, yet to have nothing done to their +disadvantage which was not in the law. It was the spirit rather than +the letter of Magna Carta that was valued by the English people. As +time passed and under Charles I. the conflict between the parliamentary +and the royal claims became more intense, the upholders of the former +fell back more and more on the ancient rights and liberties of the +people, and relatively less is said of parliamentary privileges. In the +Petition of Right of 1629, Parliament appeals to the Great Charter, to +the Confirmation of the Charters, and to other early statements of +personal liberties. Pym declared that "the liberties of this House are +inferior to the liberties of this kingdom." When the civil war was +actually imminent, in December, 1641, the Grand Remonstrance was issued +as a statement of the contentions of the leaders in Parliament. In this +document "the people," "the liberties of subjects," "rights of the +nation," and other popular expressions are constantly used or implied. +[Footnote: Grand Remonstrance, SS 11, 19, 28, 40, 53, 57, 98, 130, +etc., in Rushworth, Historical Collections, IV., 438.] + +Ultimately, as a result of the struggles of the later years of the +seventeenth century, the more important of such rights were formulated +in the Bill of Rights of 1689. Thus the heritage of civil freedom which +the people of England had traditionally enjoyed was neither taken from +them by the strong monarchy of the sixteenth century nor forgotten in +the struggle of Parliament for its own privileges in the seventeenth. +It was reasserted with constantly new insistence in England, and was +carried to America by the colonists as an acknowledged and valued +possession. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE ENGLISH COUNTY AND ITS OFFICERS (1600-1650) + + +The ordinary Englishman in the seventeenth century had much more to do +with local than with national government. Only a few score men served +the king as ministers, councillors, or judges; only a few hundred +attended Parliament; while as lords lieutenant, sheriffs, justices of +the peace, constables, church-wardens, mayors, aldermen, and in other +capacities of local and limited but real power, many thousands must +have taken a part in public affairs. National government was remote +from the ordinary man; local government came close to him. The +political institutions which surrounded him on all sides, insensibly +controlling every action and forming the world to which his outward +life conformed, were familiar to him and affected his habits and ideas, +whether he remained at home or emigrated to the colonies, far more +directly than did the political institutions of the nation. + +The oldest, most stable, and most important unit of local government +was the shire, or county. The conspicuous official and historic head of +the county was the sheriff. As Camden says, "Every year some one of the +gentlemen inhabitants is made ruler of the county wherein he dwelleth." +[Footnote: Camden, Britannia (ed. 1637), 160.] Though no longer +relatively so powerful as in the Middle Ages, his position was even yet +one of much dignity and importance. On occasions of public ceremony he +had an imposing personal retinue, carried a white rod of office, and +wore official robes. [Footnote: King, The Vale-Royall, 40; North, +Examen, quoted in Dict. Nat. Biog., XII., 121.] Richard Evelyn, when +sheriff, "had one hundred and sixteen servants in liverys, every one +liveryed in greene sattin doubliets; divers gentlemen and persons of +quality waited on him in the same garbe and habit." [Footnote: Evelyn, +Diary, 1634.] William Ffarrington, sheriff of Lancashire in 1636, kept +up the following household: a steward, a clerk of the kitchen, two +yeomen of the plate cupboard, a yeoman of the wine-cellar, two +attendants on the sheriff's chamber, an usher of the hall, two +chamberlains, four butlers and butler's assistants, eight cooks, five +scullions, a porter, a baker, a caterer, a slaughterman, a poulterer, +two watchmen for the horses, two men to attend the docket door each day +by turns, twenty men to attend upon the prisoners each day by turns-- +altogether a household of fifty-six servants. [Footnote: The Shrievalty +of William Ffarrington, 17 (Chetham Society). This reference and a +number of those which follow I owe to the industry and good scholarship +of Mr. Charles Burrows, a young man of great promise, who, after +studying at the universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania, and beginning +the preparation of a thesis on the Subject of this chapter, went abroad +for further study and died in 1902.] With the need for such official +outlays, it is no wonder that a long series of statutes should have +provided that the sheriff should be one who had land in the county +"sufficient to answer king and people." [Footnote: 9 Ed. II., st. 2; 4 +Ed. III., chap, ix.; 5 Ed. III., chaps, iv., xiii., xiv.] In fact, he +was usually a knight or a man of such rank as might be made a knight. A +list of the sheriffs of the county of Chester during the reigns of +James I. and Charles I. shows twenty-three knights and twenty-three +without title, but presumably of equal rank in society. [Footnote: +King, The Vale-Royall, 233.] Many of the best-known men of this period, +such as Sir Thomas Wentworth, Sir Ralph Verney, Sir William Selby, and +Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, afterwards earl of Shaftesbury, acted at +various times as sheriffs of their respective counties. They were +direct successors of Chaucer's Franklyn, of whom we are told, "A +schirreeve had he been." With some exceptions, such as those cities +which had their own elective sheriffs, and those pairs of counties +which were conjoined under one sheriff, each shire had one sheriff, +appointed in the following manner: every year, on November 1, a special +meeting of the Privy Council was held at the exchequer, a number of the +higher government officials being especially required to be present; +here a list of three persons of distinction from each county, qualified +to fill the office of sheriff, was made up and submitted to the king, +who "pricked" one from each three; the men thus chosen were then bound +to seek letters-patent, and take their oaths as sheriffs for the +ensuing year in their respective counties. [Footnote: Fortescue, De +Laudibus Legum Angliae, chap. xxiv.] By law the same man could not be +appointed for two successive years. [Footnote: 14 Ed. III., chap, vii., +etc.] This was probably a welcome restriction, as the appointees bore +somewhat unwillingly the burdens and expenditures of the office. +[Footnote: Hist. MSS. Commission, Report VII., App., 3-9, 25.] In 1630 +we find Sir Francis Coke writing to ask Sir J. Coke "to keep my loving +neighbour and friend Edward Revell of Brookhill from being sheriff this +year";[Footnote: Ibid., Report XII., App. I., 414. ] and in 1663 Evelyn +enters in his diary, "To court to get Sir John Evelyn, of Godstone, off +from being sheriff of Surrey." [Footnote: November 6, 1663.] It is true +that the office brought with it many small fees. A long list of +customary payments for the issue of various writs and the performance +of various services by the sheriff is given in the manuals of the time. +[Footnote: Greenwood, The County Court, 183.] On the other hand, the +fees payable by the sheriff to the officials of the exchequer on his +appointment and discharge, [Footnote: Ibid., 122.] the expenses of his +office, and the requirements of his position for social expenditure +were very considerable, and the comment of a contemporary law-writer +was, no doubt, in most cases, justified: "But the sheriff is at much +more charge, which is laid out and is disbursed during his sheriffwick, +as experience will inform him."[Footnote: Greenwood, The County Court, +187.] Another burden of the sheriff's office was enforced residence in +his own county during his term of service. The records are overspread +with fines for the violation of this requirement and with requests for +dispensations from conformity to it.[Footnote: Hist. MSS. Commission, +Report VII., App., 5; Rushworth, Historical Collections, II., App., 27, +Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, Reports, XLIII.,151; Cal. of State +Pap., Dom., 1628-1629, pp., 396, 403, etc.] A personage in an old play +says of the ladies of his time, "I think they would rather marry a +London jailer than a high-sheriff of a county, since neither can stir +from his employment." [Footnote: Wycherly, The Country Wife, act iv., +sc. 1.] The title high-sheriff, frequently used instead of the simple +term sheriff, had no especial significance and was probably suggested +by a desire to discriminate him from the under-sheriff. The exacting +duties of the office led the sheriff very frequently to appoint, at his +own cost, such a subordinate and to empower him to perform such +services as could be legally transferred to another. He was usually a +man of some position, "learned somewhat in the law, especially if the +sheriff be not learned himselfe." [Footnote: Smith, Commonwealth of +England, book II., chap. xvii.] He was a source of considerable expense +to his superior, an estimate of annual cost made in 1628 amounting to +352 Pounds 18s. 6d. He relieved the sheriff, however, of his more +onerous and invidious duties. North declared that "Clifford and +Shaftesbury looked like high-sheriff and under-sheriff. The former held +the white staff and had his name to all returns, but all the business, +especially the knavish part, was done by the latter." [Footnote: +Examen, 8, quoted in Dict. Nat, Biog., XII., 113.] + +The duties of the sheriff were many and varied; some of them old +judicial and administrative functions, others new and irregular +services demanded of him by the innovating Tudor and Stuart sovereigns. +Every month he must hold a county court, at which were brought suits +for debts of less than forty shillings, suits for damages, for breach +of contract, for non-payment of wages, for not returning borrowed or +pledged articles, and a hundred other petty causes. [Footnote: +Fitzherbert, Natura Brevium, 28 d, etc.] In this court also, and at +some other times and places, he must proclaim certain ancient statutes +and new laws and ordinances for the information and warning of the +people. + +The county court as a judicial body was, in the seventeenth century, a +waning institution, its competence and functions becoming rapidly +obsolete; but occasionally it awakened suddenly to life, took on a new +aspect, and became of unwonted importance. This occurred when a summons +was issued for a new parliament, for the county court was the electing +body of the knights of the shire, and to the next session after the +writs for the parliament had been issued came the gentry and +freeholders of the county to elect their representatives. [Footnote: +Dalton, Officium Vicecomitum, chap. xcii.] There was often a great +concourse and much excitement, and the petty disputes of poor suitors +and the labors of obscure officials were for the time completely +superseded. The sheriff, as presiding official at this election, as the +returning officer of the elected members, and as the official charged +with levying money for the payment of their wages and expenses, had an +active and influential connection with the choice of members of +Parliament. A long series of statutes checked the abuses connected with +this influence; but even yet the sheriff exercised some power over the +selection made, especially when he was a man of large influence in his +county apart from his office.[Footnote: Ibid.] + +There was great irregularity in the process of election. Sometimes the +members were elected by acclamation, sometimes by show of hands, +sometimes by a poll, one voter after another expressing orally his +preference. The election should, by law, be held between eight and +eleven o'clock in the morning, but a sheriff sometimes postponed the +election, or refused to acknowledge the candidate insisted on by the +electors, or threw out votes which he claimed were not properly given, +or closed the election when his preferred candidate was in an +advantageous position. The journals of the House of Commons are filled +with reports of contested elections, and sheriffs are repeatedly found +kneeling at the bar of the House to receive censure or pardon for such +offences.[Footnote: Commons Journals, I., 511, 556, 801, 854, 884, +etc.] + +A period of scarcely less responsibility for the sheriff was the semi- +annual assizes, when the judges in their robes, on their circuit, with +all the dignity of the judicial representatives of the crown, visited +the county.[Footnote: Rushworth, Historical Collections, I., 294.] It +was the duty of the sheriff to see that grand and petty juries were +ready to perform the services required of them by these judges, and to +carry out the mandates and judgments of the court. These judgments, +which he had to execute either in person or by his under-sheriff or +bailiffs, varied in character from the serving of writs or levying upon +property for debt to the infliction of the death penalty. [Footnote: +Greenwood, 133; Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum Angliae, chap xxiv.] The +sheriff had also the supervision of the jail and the appointment of +jailers. His presence at the two assizes of the year was considered one +of his most fundamental duties, and heavy fines were imposed when +occasionally a sheriff was absent from his post at that time. +[Footnote: Rushworth, Historical Collections, II., App., 27; Cal. of +State Pap., Dom, 1628-1629, p. 396.] He not only met the judges with +his retinue and furnished them a guard, but feasted them and acted as a +sort of local host to the circuit court so long as it was in session in +his county. + +Closely analogous to this duty of the sheriff was the requirement that +he should be present, provide jurymen, and carry out the behests of the +justices of the peace at their quarter-sessions; but the justices were, +like himself, local officers belonging to the county, not visitors from +the capital, so that their sessions had little of the ceremony and +excitement of the assizes; and, in fact, the sheriff was usually +represented there by the under-sheriff acting as his deputy. [Footnote: +Lister, Two Earliest Sessions Rolls of West Riding of Yorkshire, 1597- +1602, III., 28, 44, 64, etc.] + +In addition to these and many less conspicuous regular duties the +sheriff in the early seventeenth century was utilized from time to time +by the central government in irregular and somewhat questionable +services. When James revived the distraint of knighthood it was the +sheriffs who were required to make out lists of all who had 40 Pounds a +year of lands or rents and to order them to appear at court and receive +knighthood. When Charles I. revived the imposition of ship-money it was +to the sheriff of each county that the writ was sent, stating the +amount to be paid by his county and ordering him to arrange with the +lower officials for its assessment and collection. + +The patriotic resistance of Hampden found a parallel in the passive +opposition of some of the sheriffs to this demand upon them. On June +30, 1640, the King's Council wrote to the sheriff of Huntingdonshire: +"We have read and considered of your letter of the 24th of the present, +wherein we perceive that you have been rather industrious to represent +the difficulties which, as you say, you find in the execution of his +majesty's writ, than circumspect or careful, as you ought to have been, +in overcoming and removing them,... and we cannot but make this +judgment upon your proceedings, that instead of doing your duty in +person and compelling others subordinate to you to do theirs, you +endeavor to make excuses both for yourself and them." [Footnote: +Rushworth, Historical Collections, I, 1203.] + +Alongside of the sheriff at the head of the shire was another officer, +the lord-lieutenant, whose position, although but recently attained, +was in some ways more conspicuous and in certain exigencies more +powerful than his. No statute or other formal action provided for the +original creation of the lord-lieutenancy, and it is probable that +Henry VIII. simply began the habit of delegating his military power in +the shires to such officers. Early in the reign of Edward VI., October, +1549, they are mentioned as existing in the counties, and by 1600 their +office was fully established.[Footnote: 3 and 4 Ed VI, chap v, in +Statutes of the Realm, IV, 107.]This position was usually held by the +greatest nobleman with estates in the county, and he appointed as his +deputies various knights and gentlemen of high position; as when, in +1626, the duke of Buckingham was lord-lieutenant of Bucks, and Sir +Edward Verney and five others were his deputies in that county. +Although purely honorary, the appointment was one of much dignity and +responsibility in military matters. + +It was the duty of the lord-lieutenant in times of peace to see that +the musters of the trained bands were regularly held, that the militia- +men had their arms, and that men of higher rank who owed military +service to the crown were prepared to perform it; in time of war to +levy, muster, and train soldiers, fix the quotas of the hundreds and +townships, see to the payment of troops, the collection of horses, and +equipment generally, until the recruits were actually handed over to +their officers. It was also their duty to see that the beacons were +kept in order. The lords-lieutenant must be present, by an order of +1615, nine months in the year [Footnote: Cal. of State Pap., Dom., +1611-1618, p. 337.] in their counties; but there was no such rigorous +requirement of constant residence as in the case of the sheriff, nor +was the appointment restricted to a single year. + +Such an official as the lord-lieutenant was not likely to be left +unburdened with other duties when the government was struggling to +obtain the enforcement of its laws, and, as a matter of fact, functions +quite unmilitary were imposed upon him. In 1637 the council orders the +lords-lieutenant of six of the eastern counties to assist in the better +enforcement of the acts for the drainage of the marshes. [Footnote: +Cal. of State Pap., Dom., 1637, p. 92.] In 1621 they are to investigate +frauds of his majesty's carters. [Footnote: Hist. MSS. Commission, +Report VII., App., 670.] They are asked to help collect subsidies and +benevolences, to search for popish recusants, to oversee ale-houses, +slaughter-houses, and the assize of bread and ale, to assist in the +administration of poor relief and the suppression of vagrancy. +[Footnote: Chetham Society, Lancashire Lieutenancy, I, Int., 19; Camden +Society, Verney Papers, 37, 88.] In 1619 the Lords of the Council write +to the lieutenant of Surrey asking him to urge co-operation in a +lottery for the success of "the English colonies planted in Virginia, +to accept the sums adventured, and to report to the treasurer and +council of Virginia." [Footnote: Hist. MSS. Commission, Report VII., +App., 670.] Much less dignified in position than either the lord- +lieutenant or the sheriff, and yet filling an old and important office, +was the coroner. He was elected by the freeholders of the county in the +county court, and his oath was administered by the county clerk. He +was, therefore, more distinctly local and representative than the other +county officers, who were appointed by the crown; and as a result he +was the only officer whose office did not terminate with the death of +the king. Notwithstanding the generality of duties indicated by his +name, "custos placitarum coronae," his functions were few beyond the +fundamental duty of investigating sudden deaths and binding over for +trial such persons as were indicated by the jury through which he made +his inquest. [Footnote: Smith, Commonwealth of England, book II., chap. +xxiv.] Under some circumstances the coroner took the place of the +sheriff, and in general his position looked back to a time when it was +of greater significance than it had become in the seventeenth century. +[Footnote: Greenwood, The County Court, 258.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ENGLISH JUSTICES OF THE PEACE (1600-1650) + + +However extensive the duties of the officers whose functions are +described above, the real men-of-all-work in the counties at this time +were the justices of the peace. The law required that a justice of the +peace must have lands and tenements to the value of L 20 a year, the +amount of the legal knight's fee; [Footnote: 18 Henry VI., chap. xi] +but ordinarily he had much greater property. John Evelyn's father, who +has been so often referred to as a typical country gentleman of the +early seventeenth century, had an estate of L 4000 a year when he was +successively sheriff and justice of the peace. [Footnote: Evelyn, +Diary, year 1634] The justice of the peace, like the sheriff, the lord- +lieutenant, and the coroner, was expected to perform his public +services as part of his patriotic duty. It is true that certain +statutes provided that part of the fines for any violation should go to +the justices before whom the violators were prosecuted; two or three +others gave small fees to the justice for affixing his seal or signing +a document; but these were apparently casual efforts to secure +enforcement, and can have brought no appreciable return to the +justices. The law gave each justice 2s. for each day of quarter- +sessions up to three days; but this could have produced at most only +6s., and seems to have been usually jointly expended by the magistrates +in a dinner. + +In an interesting speech by a Mr. Glascock in the House of Commons, +December 16, 1601, two equally undesirable justices are described-- +first, the one "who from base stock and lineage by his wealth is gotten +to be within the commission"; the other "a gentleman born, virtuous, +discreet, and wise, yet poor and needy. And so only for his virtues and +qualities put into the commission. This man I hold unfit to be a +justice, though I think him to be a good member in the commonwealth. +Because I hold this for a ground infallible--that no poor man ought to +be in authority. My reason is this: he will so bribe you and extort you +that the sweet scent of riches and gain taketh away and confoundeth the +true taste of justice and equity." [Footnote: Townshend, Proceedings, +953, 954] But burdensome as the duties of a justice must have been, and +almost unpaid as they were, the office does not seem to have been +avoided as was that of sheriff. Probably such service was taken as a +matter of course by the gentry, and compensation was found in the stamp +of social position it placed upon them, and in the sense of power, as +well as of a patriotic fulfilment of duty. It was sometimes a matter of +complaint that "with us these magistrates have been so unsuitably +appointed that a county justice is made a jest in comedies, and his +character the subject of buffoonery and laughter." [Footnote: Carey, +English Liberties, 275] This is an obvious reference to Justice Shallow +and other worthies of the dramatists. It is dangerous to make too +serious an inference from contemporary comedies, because certain +personages soon became stock characters and ceased to have any very +close relation to actual life, and in this particular instance +Shakespeare was probably gratifying an old grudge. + +Nevertheless, there was evidently some foundation for this picture of +the county justice. Dorothy Osborne, in one of her delightful letters +to Sir William Temple, in giving her requirements for a husband, pokes +fun at such ambitions. "He must not be so much of a country gentleman +as to understand nothing but hawks and dogs, and be fonder of either +than his wife; nor of the next sort of them whose aim reaches no +further than to be Justice of the Peace, and once in his life High +Sheriff, who reads no book but statutes, and studies nothing but how to +make a speech interlarded with Latin that may amaze his disagreeing +poor neighbours, and fright them rather than persuade them into +quietness." [Footnote: Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William +Temple, letter 36 (ed. by Parry), p 171] With all these criticisms, and +in the face of occasional ineptitude, the body of justices of the peace +included much ability. It was scarcely possible for a justice to act +without some knowledge of Latin, as almost all the records and +documents which he would have to make, read, or sign were in that +language. A succession of text-books on the duties of the office, the +more important of them appearing in many successive editions, proves an +intelligent interest and demand for instruction in their duties. +Moreover, the men who served as justices were often well known in other +ways, many of them as sheriffs, as members of Parliament, and in still +other capacities. They were of families who provided the active men of +enterprise of the period. The list of Devonshire justices in 1592 +includes Sir Francis Drake, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Gilberts, Carews, +Seymours, Courtenays, and other names prominent among the men who laid +the foundations of the maritime greatness of England and of the +existence of America. Of the fifty-five, twenty-eight were at one time +or another high-sheriffs of the county, twenty more were then, or +became afterwards, knights, six sat in the House of Commons, and three +in the House of Lords. [Footnote: Hamilton, Devonshire Quarter- +Sessions, 3, 330-348.] + +The justices of the peace were fair representatives of that great class +of rural gentry which exercised so strong an influence over the +destinies of England in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth +centuries. From this class were drawn all the county officials who have +been named, except the lord-lieutenant; from it were chosen the county +representatives to Parliament; and in it were found the strength and +the weakness of the English political system. James I., in appealing to +the country gentry to continue to live on their estates in their +counties, said to them, "Gentlemen, at London you are like ships in a +sea, which shew like nothing, but in your country villages you are like +ships in a river, which look like great things." [Footnote: Bacon, +Apothegms, in Works (Spedding and Heath ed), VII., 125.] + +Out of this body of rural gentry from twenty to sixty in each county +were chosen by the lord-chancellor to serve as justices of the peace. +[Footnote: Lambard, Eirenarcha, book I., chap. v.] The "commission of +the peace," by which the justices were appointed and from which they +drew their powers, was a formula well known and constantly quoted and +commented upon, and added to from time to time until late in the +sixteenth century. In was then, in 1590, revised and formulated anew by +Sir Christopher May, Chief-Justice, with the advice of all the other +judges of the time, and has not been changed from that day to this. +[Footnote: Ibid., book II., chap. vii.] + +The justices of the peace performed some of their duties separately, +acting individually as circumstances required, or as proved convenient +to themselves. Other powers they could exercise only when two or more +acted together and concurrently. Still others, and those far the most +important and dignified, they performed in a body at their "quarter- +sessions." What things a justice might do singly, what two, three, or +four justices might do together, and what they might do only in the +formal sessions of the whole body of justices of the peace of the +county were defined partly in the statutes, partly in the commission +under which they acted. + +The regular or quarter-sessions were meetings held four times a year-- +in October, midwinter, spring, and midsummer--at which all the justices +of the peace of the county were supposed to be present. There were, +besides, occasional irregular sessions, or meetings of the regular +sessions adjourned from one time to another. In corporate towns the +city officers acted as justices of the peace, reinforced usually by +some others especially appointed; and each town followed its own +customs as to meeting in general sessions. + +Although the law contemplated the attendance of all the justices of the +county at each quarter-sessions, as a matter of fact the attendance was +very irregular and incomplete, few of the records, so far as published, +showing an attendance of as many as a dozen out of perhaps forty or +fifty. Most of them evidently came riding up to quarter-sessions if it +suited their convenience and remained away if it did not, restricting +their services to those duties which could be performed in their own +neighborhoods, and leaving to a few active, regular, and hardworking +magistrates the responsibilities of the higher work. [Footnote: West +Riding Sessions Rolls; Manchester Quarter-Sessions, passim.] + +Of those who made up quarter-sessions one at least must be "of the +quorum." This expression is taken from the commission of the justices +of the peace, which in the clause giving to the justices the power to +inquire and determine by oath of the jurors as to felonies and other +offences and to punish them, after naming all those to whom the +commission for that county is issued, says, quorum aliquem vestrum, A, +B, C, etc., unum esse volumus (of whom we wish you, A, B, C, etc., to +be one), naming presumably such as were learned in the law or otherwise +especially trustworthy. [Footnote: Lambarde, Eirenarcha, book I., chap. +ix.] As without the presence of one of the "quorum" no quarter-sessions +could be held, to be a "justice of the peace and of the quorum" was to +be one of a select list of the justices. One-third or one-half of the +list of those in the commission were usually named also in the quorum. +In addition to the justices there should, according to law, be present +at quarter-sessions, in the first place, the custos rotulorum, or +keeper of the rolls of the sessions, the "custalorum" of Justice +Shallow. [Footnote: Merry Wives of Windsor, act i., sc. i.] This was +always one of the justices of high rank indicated to the lord- +chancellor for appointment by the king himself, [Footnote: 37 Henry +VIII., chap i.] and was very apt to be the lord-lieutenant of the +county. He could be, and probably was, usually represented at the +sessions by a deputy, who was a person of considerable importance and +influence, upon whom much responsibility was placed by the statutes, +and whose abilities must have been constantly relied upon by the +magistrates. The title of this deputy was "clerk of the peace," the +predecessor apparently of the American county clerk. He was usually +familiar with the law, and his knowledge of precedents and procedure +must often have stood the unlearned justices in good stead, besides the +work which he performed in drawing up indictments, writing orders, and +keeping records. + +Besides the custos and the clerk, the sheriff or his deputy were bound +to be present prepared to empanel jurors and execute process; as well +as the jailer ready to produce his prisoners; the superintendent of the +county house of correction; all jurors who had been summoned by the +sheriff; all persons who had been bound over by single justices to +appear at quarter-sessions; all high constables and bailiffs of +hundreds; and the coroners. [Footnote: Dalton, Officium Vicecomitum, +chaps, xxxiv., clxxxv.] The quarter-sessions should, by law, be kept +for three continuous days if there was any need; [Footnote: 12 Richard +II, chap. x.] but, as a matter of fact, sessions seldom lasted more +than a day, and a contemporary complains that "many doe scantly afford +them three whole hours, besides the time which is spent in calling of +the county and giving of the charge." [Footnote: Lambarde, Eirenarcha, +book IV., chap. xix.] + +The powers and duties of the justices of the peace in quarter-sessions +and separately were so considerable and varied as to tax the ability of +an Elizabethan or Jacobean text-book writer to reduce them to +simplicity of statement, or to the compass of five or six hundred pages +of enumeration. Many of these powers were general, arising from the +nature of the office for the "conservation of the peace"; but the great +mass of their duties was placed upon them by statutes. Ten early +statutes are enumerated in the commission itself, before coming to the +inclusive "and cause to be kept all other ordinances and statutes made +for the good of our peace and the quiet rule and government of our +people." From the middle of the fifteenth century forward, the +enforcement of the greater number of new laws was placed primarily in +the hands of the justices of the peace. + +As time passed on legislation became more and more minute and +inclusive. Few interests in human life escaped the paternal attention +of government under the Tudors and Stuarts, and this great mass of +enactment it became the duty of the groups of country gentry in the +counties and of the civic magistrates of the towns to put into force. A +writer of the time enumerates two hundred and ninety-three statutes +passed previous to 1603 in which justices of the peace are mentioned +and given some jurisdiction or duties. [Footnote: Lambarde, Eirenarcha, +book IV., chap, xix., Table, App.] Under Elizabeth alone there were +seventy-eight, ranging from the "preservation of spawn and frie of +fish" to those "touching bulls from Rome." The infrequent and short- +lived parliaments of James I. added thirty-six to the list. [Footnote: +Dalton, The Country Justice, Table of Contents.] + +Although many of these laws are repetitions, some others temporary or +local, still others insignificant, yet, on the other hand, some of them +opened up whole new fields of activity to the justices: as, for +instance, those placing upon them, after 1563, the administration of +the Act of Apprentice; and, after 1581, the responsibility for the +search for and punishment of popish recusants. A whole code of law, +procedure, and precedent grew up on these two subjects, besides others +scarcely less extensive. + +Quarter-sessions had nothing to do with civil suits, and cases of +treason, murder, and certain other high crimes were excluded from their +competence. Apart from this restriction and these offences, there was +little difference between sessions and assizes, between the +jurisdiction of the learned judges of the king in their half-yearly +circuit and that of the county magistrates in their quarter-sessions. +Before them both grand and petty juries were empanelled, indictments +drawn up, prisoners tried for assault, burglary, horse-stealing, +witchcraft, pocket-picking, keeping up nuisances, cheating, failure to +attend church, and almost all other offences of which seventeenth- +century Englishmen were capable. If convicted they were placed in the +stocks, whipped, or hanged. In Devonshire, in the midwinter sessions of +1598, out of sixty-five culprits who were tried eight were hanged; at +midsummer, out of forty-five eight were hanged, thirteen flogged, seven +acquitted, and seven, on account of their claim of benefit of clergy, +were branded and then released. [Footnote: Hamilton, Devonshire +Quarter-Sessions, 33.] + +The justices in sessions or singly also performed much administrative +work, such as the oversight and repair of bridges, the granting of +licenses to ale-houses, the establishment of wages, the binding out of +apprentices, and the relief of wounded soldiers. Many laws passed under +Elizabeth and James I. admitted of exceptions when approved by one or +more justices of the peace, and there was thus constant occasion for +granting to individual persons or at special times permission to export +grain, to turn their barley into malt, to build cottages without land +attached, to carry hand-guns, to buy and sell out of market-hours, to +beg, and other dispensations from the rigorous application of the law. +[Footnote: Ibid., 27, 164, etc.] + +The punishing of recusants and the discipline of those who refused or +neglected to go to church was, as already stated, an active occupation +of the justices. + +At certain times, such as the period just following the Gunpowder Plot, +when the search was for Catholics, and somewhat later, when the search +was for Puritans and Separatists, the Privy Council brought severe +pressure upon the justices to fulfill these duties, and numerous +prosecutions were brought by them. In Middlesex during the reign of +James I. the indictments averaged eighty-five per year for religious +offences, and sometimes at one session there were as many as one +hundred and fifty persons indicted. [Footnote: Middlesex County +Sessions Rolls, II., III.; Hamilton, Devonshire Quarter-Sessions, 27, +74, etc.; Cal. of State Pap., Dom., 1633-1634, p. 531.] + +The justices were constantly called upon to act in special emergencies +or to give special relief. If a man's thatched cottage were burned, the +nearest justice might authorize him to make an appeal to his neighbors +for help to rebuild; if a whole village or town suffered from a more +extensive fire, the justices in their sessions quartered the homeless +people in various parishes, announced a subscription, and, calling +constables and leading villagers before them, exhorted them to liberal +voluntary gifts, and appointed a subcommittee to administer the funds +for relief; if a pestilence appeared, a tax-rate for immediate +assistance was levied, and the justices supported the sick and enforced +the quarantine; if food became scarce and high-priced the justices +forbade its export from the county or conversion into malt, and even +announced a maximum market-price for it. When weavers or other +artificers were out of work the justices set to work to induce masters +to employ them or merchants to buy their goods, or, as a last resort, +levied a rate for their support. If news came of the capture of a +number of English sailors or merchants by Barbary pirates, collections +were taken up by the justices of the maritime counties for their +redemption. In all such exigencies it was the justices of the peace who +were expected to tide over the special temporary difficulty or need. + +Besides the ancient regulative duties of the justices, and besides +those that were definitely given them by successive statutes, they were +constantly subject to the commands and instructions of the Privy +Council. In 1592, soon after the remodelling of the commission, a +circular letter was sent by the Privy Council to certain commissioners +in each county requiring them to call a special meeting of all justices +of the peace, at which the oath of office and the oath of supremacy +must be taken by each, or they must retire from the commission of the +peace. [Footnote: Hamilton, Devonshire Quarter-Sessions, 36, 48; +Nichols, Hist. of the Poor Law, 252; Hist. MSS. Commission, Report +XIV., App. IV., 42.] This seems to have been preparatory to a more +strict discipline and oversight of their actions, for communications +from the council now became more frequent and more drastic. In +requiring them to fulfil their duties as magistrates the Privy Council +spoke categorically in the name of the king in a constant series of +letters, couched often in such harsh terms of reproof as to make it +hard to realize that the justices were gentlemen of rank and dignity, +fulfilling laborious services practically without compensation. In 1598 +vigorous letters were sent to the various counties calling the +attention of the justices to the recently enacted poor law, and +requiring them to see it put into execution. [Footnote: Leonard, "the +Poor Law," 143.] From this time forward to the outbreak of the civil +war the pressure of the council on the justices became stronger and +stronger. In January, 1631, a "Book of Orders" was issued by the Privy +Council giving instructions in greater detail to the justices as to +their duties, especially in regard to the poor law, and requiring them +to make reports every three months to the sheriffs, who were to +transmit these reports to the justices of assize, who were in turn to +send them to certain members of the Privy Council deputed for the +purpose. The judges of assize were also to report directly to the king +if they learned of the negligence of any of the justices of the peace. +[Footnote: Ibid., 158, etc.] "The Book of Orders" was reissued from +time to time and its requirements followed up. + +An attempt was made by these means to introduce a system of "thorough" +in the affairs of local government during the period of the personal +government of Charles I., analogous to that attempted in the higher +ranges of government by Wentworth, Laud, and their fellow-members of +the Privy Council. The great instruments of this plan were the justices +of the peace, acting within the limits of their respective counties, +carrying out the manifold duties imposed upon them by law, under +constant pressure from the Privy Council and the king. After even this +partial enumeration of the services of the justices of the peace and of +the supervision kept over them, one can readily appreciate the feeling +of the justices of Nottingham who complained that they had "little rest +at home or abroad." [Footnote: "Cal. of State Pap, Dom," 1631-1633, p. +18.] + +The centre of gravity of local government in England was in the county. +The power which put its machinery in motion was that of the central +government; but the actual administration was in the hands of the +sheriff, the lord-lieutenant, the coroner, and the justices of the +peace. The county bounded the sphere of activity of all these +officials. The commission of any group of justices named the county in +which they were to exercise their functions, and outside of its +boundaries all their powers dropped from them. The coroner could not +hold an inquest outside of his own county, and even the lord-lieutenant +could exercise his military functions only within the shire or shires +named in his commission. When, in 1603, James I. rode southward from +Edinburgh on the news of the death of Elizabeth, and crossed the border +at Berwick, he was met by the sheriff of Northumberland and escorted by +him to the borders of Durham, where he was met by the sheriff of that +county, and so from shire to shire through the whole length of England +till he reached London. + +The basis of representation in Parliament was the county: the counties +formed the districts for all the circuit courts; national taxation was +largely distributed by counties, and, as has been seen, local +jurisdiction and administration were largely in the hands of county +officials. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ENGLISH PARISH OR TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT (1500-1650) + + +Next below the county as a political subdivision of England came the +hundred, or wapentake, as it was called in the northern shires. One of +the oldest political units of the country, perhaps the very oldest, it +had become the least important of all. Its ancient significance as the +primary organization of the community for judicial purposes disappeared +long before the beginning of the seventeenth century, leaving only a +desultory practice of holding a sheriff's semi-annual "tourn" through +the hundreds of the shire; and some traditional payments of fees to the +noblemen who held the hundred court as a "liberty," or to the crown. +Apart from its existence as a unit of jurisdiction, the hundred was +still put to some use as a subdivision of the county for purposes of +taxation, for military organization and service, for the preservation +of order, and as the sphere of activity of the high-constable. +[Footnote: Lambarde, Constables, S 25; Cal. of State Pap., Dom., 1637, +pp. 39, 104.] The high-constables were, indeed, the only officers of +the hundreds, one or more being chosen annually by the justices of the +peace in quarter-sessions from the same class of rural gentry as we +have already seen furnishing the county local officials. The hundred, +for some reason, took but slight root in colonial soil, though it was +established in a few of the colonies, and in such places many of its +English functions reappeared. [Footnote: Howard, Local Constitutional +History of the U. 5., 272-286; Wilhelmi, Local Institutions of +Maryland, 60, n. 5.] An ancient Latin law writer says, "England is +divided into counties, counties are divided into hundreds (which in +some parts of England are called wapentakes), and hundreds are again +subdivided into villas." [Footnote: Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum +Angliae, chap. cxxiv.] By using the general word villas ("vills") he +evaded one of the greatest difficulties in the description of English +local government in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the +confusing and conflicting use of terms for the smallest subdivision of +civil government. Shall we use parish, town, township, manor, or +tithing when we speak of a neighborhood organized for the affairs of +petty government? All these terms are used abundantly in the records of +the time and to a great extent are used indiscriminately. + +This lack of consistency is quite natural and explicable. In the first +place, local organization as it existed at this time was the residuum +of several successive systems of custom and law, and contained +survivals from the nomenclature of each. "Township" or "town" was a +term belonging to a far-distant Anglo-Saxon past, and had been long +obscured by the later institution of tithings and the still later +manors. Secondly, the union of church and state, the mutual +interpenetration of the ecclesiastical and civil systems, served to +complicate the matter still further by confusing the word "parish" with +terms which applied in a non-ecclesiastical sense to the same little +group of people and the same tract of land. + +Of all these terms, three--manor, town (or township), and parish--are +the most usual. A manor was a group of inhabitants and the land they +occupied (usually a single village), so far as these people were +connected with and dependent upon a certain "lord of the manor," who +had various rights over the people and their lands. Aside from his +position as landlord, the most important of these rights was that of +holding a court-baron and a court-leet and view of frank-pledge. + +Various powers and activities had long gathered around these petty +courts, but the whole group of manorial rights and duties of +jurisdiction and administration was, in 1600, fast becoming an obsolete +and insignificant institution. Yet the terms connected with it had +worked themselves inseparably into local life. Courts-baron were held +in but few places, and almost solely for the purpose of making land +transfers; courts-leet were held only infrequently and irregularly, +many lords of manors who possessed the right exercising it but once a +year or less frequently; the whole system of frank-pledges had long +gone into desuetude. Grants of manorial powers, "court-leet, court- +baron, and view of frank-pledge," were made in several of the colonial +charters; but these institutions showed little inclination to renew in +America a vitality they had lost in England. + +The English word town or township is the nearest equivalent to the +Latin word villa or vill, which is a generic term used in the records, +without very exact connotation, for one of those country villages in +which the rural population of England was distributed, including the +land connected with the village. Town and township meant the same +thing, except when the former was applied to an urban community. Over +and over again to the same locality first the term "town" and then +"township" is applied; [Footnote: West Riding Sessions Rolls, passim.] +and a careful search fails to find any distinction drawn between them. +In the north of England the term town or township seems to have been +especially familiar and frequently used as a subdivision of some of the +other local units; [Footnote: Fishwick, Hist of Preston, 2.] and it was +in common use everywhere as a synonym for manor or parish. + +While all these terms meet us frequently in the records of the +seventeenth century, the term parish, notwithstanding its +ecclesiastical connotation, was, in fact, superseding all others as the +most usual appellation to give to the unit of local government. Terms +strictly applicable to other phases of the local organization were apt +to be applied to the parish. For instance, we hear of the "constable of +a parish," [Footnote: Archaeological Review, IV, 344.] although that +officer was an official of a township; proprietors of "free" and "copy- +hold" lands of a parish are spoken of, though those terms properly +applied only to a manor; the same is true of an order for a court to be +held every three weeks in certain parishes, [Footnote: Saalkeld, +Reports, III., 98.] the term "court" being properly manorial. These +expressions show the tendency of the time to substitute the term +"parish" for more exact terms applied to the local governing body in +its different aspects. It was the "parish" that was usually sued, +taxed, and fined, that received property by bequest, and that was +ordered by the government to perform various duties. + +Our colonial forefathers, according to the locality of their origin or +the particular phase of local government that applied to their new +conditions, used sometimes one term, sometimes another; but in this +study of English conditions the parish and the officers whose sphere of +action was the parish may be taken to include all that is necessary, +with the understanding that our use of the term parish is broad, in +conformity with seventeenth-century usage. + +The knowledge of the boundaries of the parish was kept alive by the +traditional ceremony of perambulation. From time to time, usually once +a year, a procession was formed which went the rounds of the outer +boundary, stopping from time to time at well-marked points for various +commemorative ceremonies. In pre-Reformation times the ceremony was a +religious one, the priest leading and the parishioners following with +cross, banners, bells, lights, and sacred emblems, successive points +being blessed and sprinkled with holy water. [Footnote: Burn, +Ecclesiastical Law, II, 133,134.] When religious processions were +forbidden at the Reformation, this ceremony came under the condemnation +of the law; and Queen Elizabeth found it necessary, in order to +perpetuate the useful civil element in it, to direct by proclamation a +certain form of renewal of the processions. "The people should, once in +the year, at the time appointed, with the curate and substantial men of +the parish, walk about the parish, and at their return to the church +make their common prayers. And the curate in the said perambulation +was, at certain convenient places, to admonish the people to give +thanks to God in the beholding of His benefits, and for the increase +and abundance of his fruits upon the face of the earth, with the saying +of the one hundred and third Psalm." [Footnote: Gibson, Codex, 213.] + +The custom survived in this or other forms, [Footnote: Shillingfleet, +Ecclesiastical Cases, I., 244.] because there were no surveyed +boundaries, and reliance had to be placed on marked stones and trees, +hill-tops, watercourses, and such indications, interpreted and defined +only by human tradition. In some remote districts it is still +preserved. From the practice of performing the perambulation in +rogation week it was often called "the rogation," and conversely +rogation days were sometimes called "gang-days" [Footnote: Burn, +Ecclesiastical Law, II., 133.] In the seventeenth century, as the men +who afterwards practised it in New England and Virginia must have +remembered, it was still a festivity. In the church-wardens' accounts +for the parish of St. Clements, Ipswich, in 1638, is the item "ffor +bread and beare given to the boyes when they wente the boundes of the +parishe, 12s." [Footnote: East Anglian, IV., 2d series, 5.] Boys were +taken as those whose life and memory would naturally be the longest, +and the poorer boys were often especially included as a treat. In +Chelsea, Middlesex, at a somewhat later time, a more official feast is +suggested by the entry: "Spent at the perambulation dinner, 3 pounds +10s." [Footnote: Toulmin Smith, The Parish, 473.] + +No material obstacle was allowed to interfere with the progress of the +perambulators. They could, by law, enter all dwellings on the boundary +and pass through and even break down all enclosures which lay across +it. Private persons whose houses lay in the line of march of the +perambulators sometimes provided food and drink for them, and this +became so customary that efforts were made, though unsuccessfully, to +enforce this custom by law. [Footnote: Burn, Ecclesiastical Law, II., +133.] + +In describing the officers of the parish we pass from the class of +country gentry, from which the sheriffs, coroners, justices of the +peace, and high-constables were drawn, to a group of lower social rank. +In the towns they may have been of somewhat higher or at least more +varied status, but in the rural parishes the officers were of very +humble position. In the invaluable description of England written by +Harrison in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, from which we +have had occasion to quote so frequently, the author says: "The fourth +and last sort of people in England are day-labourers, poor husbandmen, +and some retailers (which have no free land), copyholders, and all +artificers, as tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, brickmakers, masons, +etc. ... This fourth and last sort of people therefore have neither +voice nor authority in the commonwealth, but are to be ruled and not to +rule others: yet they are not altogether neglected, for ... in villages +they are commonly made churchwardens, sidesmen, aleconners, now and +then constables, and many times enjoy the name of head boroughs." +[Footnote: Harrison, Description of England (Camelot ed.), 13.] + +The most active and conspicuous officer of the parish or township was +the constable, or petty constable, as he is often called, to +distinguish him from the high-constable of the hundred. He was +appointed by the court-leet, where this was still held; in other cases +by the steward of the lord of the manor, the vestry of the parish, or, +as a part of their residuary duties, by the justices of the peace. The +regular form of oath of the constable may be quoted in some fulness to +show the nature of his duties. "You shall swear that you shall well and +truly serve our sovereign lord, the king, in the office of a constable. +You shall see and cause his majesty's peace to be well and duly kept +and preserved, according to your power. You shall arrest all such +persons as in your sight and presence shall ride or go armed +offensively, or shall commit or make any riot, affray, or other breach +of his majesty's peace. You shall do your best endeavor to apprehend +all felons, barrators, and rioters, or persons riotously assembled; and +if any such offenders shall make resistance you shall levy hue and cry +and shall pursue them until they be taken. You shall do your best +endeavors that the watch in and about your town be duly kept for the +apprehending of rogues, vagabonds, nightwalkers, eavesdroppers, and +other suspected persons, and of such as go armed and the like. ... You +shall well and duly execute all precepts and warrants to you directed +from the justices of the peace of the county or higher officers. In +time of hay or corn harvest you shall cause all meet persons to serve +by the day for the mowing, reaping, and getting in of corn or hay. You +shall, in Easter week, cause your parishioners to chuse surveyors for +the mending of the highways in your parish. ... And you shall well and +duly, according to your knowledge, power, and ability, do and execute +all things belonging to the office of a constable so long as you shall +continue in this office. So help you God." [Footnote: Dalton, The +Country Justice, chap. clxxiv.] + +The constable, among the other duties prescribed by his oath, had to +"raise the hue and cry" when it was demanded--that is to say, if any +one were assaulted or robbed and appealed to the constable of the +parish in which the injury occurred, the constable must summon out his +neighbors, whether it were by day or by night, to seek the culprit. If +not successful he must give notice to the constables of the adjacent +parishes, who were similarly to raise the hue and cry in their +neighborhoods. If the offender was not then discovered the person who +suffered the loss might bring suit for its recovery from the whole +hundred in which the attack occurred. [Footnote: Ibid., chap. lxxxiv,] + +In practice hue and cry was a very ineffective method of capturing ill- +doers. Harrison says: "I have known by my own experience felons being +taken to have escaped out of the stocks, being rescued by others for +want of watch and guard, that thieves have been let pass, because the +covetous and greedy parishioners would neither take the pains nor be at +the charge to carry them to prison, if it were far off; that when hue +and cry have been made even to the faces of some constables, they have +said: 'God restore your loss! I have other business at this time.'" +[Footnote: Harrison, Description of England (Camelot ed.), 247.] To +prosecute petty offenders, to force laborers to serve during harvest- +time, to sign their testimonials when they wished to leave the parish, +and to see that innkeepers refused no travellers, gave the constable +considerable duties of local supervision. + +The constable must, with the advice of the minister and of one other +inhabitant of the parish, whip any rogue, vagabond, or sturdy beggar +who appeared in the parish, and then send him, with a testimonial to +the fact of the whipping, back to his native parish. The word rogue was +a comprehensive term as used in the laws of Elizabeth, including +wandering sailors, fortune-tellers, collectors of money for charities, +fencers, bearwards, minstrels, common players of interludes, jugglers, +tinkers, peddlers, and many others, and adequate whipping of them and +starting them in the direct route homeward must have been no sinecure. +[Footnote: Lambarde, Duties of Constables, S 45.] + +A contemporary testimonial with which such a person was provided may +not be without interest as an illustration of the manners of the time. +"A. B., a sturdy rogue of tall stature, red-haired and bearded, about +the age of thirty years, and having a wart neere under his right eie, +born (as he confesseth) at East Tilberie, in Essex, was taken begging +at Shorne in this county of Kent, the tenth of March, 1598, and was +then and there lawfully whipped therefor, and hee is appointed to goe +to East Tilberie aforesaid, the direct way by Gravesend, over the river +of Thamise; for which hee is allowed one whole day, and no more at his +peril; subscribed and sealed the day and yeare aforesaid. By us" +(signed by the minister, the constable, and a parishioner). [Footnote: +Lambarde, Duties of Constables, S 45.] It is no wonder that constables +are advised "in every corner to have a readie hand and whip." + +The constable was also the warden of such arms and armor as each parish +kept, or was supposed to keep, in obedience to the militia +requirements. A writer of Elizabeth's time says: "The said armour and +munition likewise is kept in one several place of every town, appointed +by the consent of the whole parish, where it is always ready to be had +and worn within an hour's warning. ... Certes there is almost no +village so poor ... that hath not sufficient furniture in a readiness +to set forth three or four soldiers, as one archer, one gunner, one +pike, and a billman." [Footnote: Harrison, Description of England +(Camelot ed.), 224.] + +An account of the armor kept in a parish in Middlesex is entered in the +vestry accounts of the year 1583. "Note of the armour for the parish of +Fulham: first, a corslet, with a pyke, sworde, and daiger, furnished in +all points, a gyrdle only excepted. Item, two hargobushes, with flaskes +and touch-boxes to the same; two morryons; two swords, and two daigers, +which are all for Fulham side only. All which armore are, and do +remayne in the possession and appointment of John Palton, of Northend, +being constable of Fulhamsyde the yere above wrytten." [Footnote: +Toulmin Smith, The Parish, 473.] One may easily imagine the nature and +value of such accoutrements, and of the villagers who were occasionally +pressed into the service to wear them. Mouldy and Bullcalf, Wart, +Shadow, and Feeble, and Falstaff's whole company of "cankers of a calm +world and a long peace" may readily enough have been drawn from the +life. + +These duties the constable must fulfil at his own initiation or upon +the recurrence of the occasion for them. But the great part of his +duties were those imposed upon him from above in special cases--that is +to say, in carrying out the warrants and precepts of the justices of +the peace, or occasionally of the coroner, sheriff, lord-lieutenant, or +still higher officials. If the justice of the peace was the man-of-all- +work, as has been said, of the government of the time, the constable +was the tool and instrument with which he worked. The constable was +required to arrest all persons who were to be bound over by the +justices to keep the peace, and all felons and other ill-doers for whom +a warrant had been issued, and to bring them before the justices into +jail. And woe be to him if he allowed such a prisoner to escape. The +justices might construe his inactivity as participation in the crime of +the prisoner, or he might be fined to the extent of all his property. +[Footnote: Lambarde, Duties of Constables, S 15] + +The constable must carry out the lesser sentences of the justices, +inflicting the punishment ordered and collecting the fines imposed. For +instance, when a certain poor woman, Elizabeth Armistead, was convicted +of petty larceny at the West Riding Sessions, in 1598, it was ordered +by the justices that "she shall nowe be delivered to the constable of +Keerbie, and he to cause her to be stripped naked from the middle +upward and soundly whipped thorowe the said town of Keerbie, and by hym +delivered to the constable of Kirkby and he to see like execution +within his town, and the next markett att Weatherbie to delyver her to +the constables of Weatherbie, and they to see like punishment of her +executed thorow their towns." [Footnote: West Riding Sessions Rolls, +58] In assessing and collecting taxes and in obtaining information the +constables were at the command of county and hundred authorities. They +were used as the active or at least the most available intermediaries +between the justices of the peace and the individuals whom it was +desirable to reach. [Footnote: Hist. MSS. Commission, Report XIV., App, +pt. iv, 28, 67.] They were by no means ideal instruments; many were +extremely ignorant--as, for instance, the constable of Collingbourne +Ducis, who in 1650 prays to be relieved from his office because he can +neither read nor write, and is obliged to go to the minister and divers +others to get his warrants read. [Footnote: Hist. MSS. Commission, +Report I., 121] They were constantly being fined by the justices for +neglect of their duties or for inefficiency. [Footnote: Middlesex +County Records, II., 36, 41, 139.] + +The most important remaining ancient parochial officers were the +church-wardens. Their position and functions were not so purely +ecclesiastical as the name would suggest. Their duties included, it is +true, the care of the parish church and the provision of other material +requirements for religious services. But they also included many things +which were quite clearly temporal or civil in their nature. Coke says +of their position, "The office is mere temporal." [Footnote: Lambarde, +Duties of Constables, SS 57-60.] That is to say, the church-wardens +represented the parishioners, not the minister or the ecclesiastical +authorities. They formed a quasi-corporation for the holding of the +personal property that belonged to the parish, and could sue and be +sued as trustees for the parish. [Footnote: Lambarde, Duties of Church- +wardens, S 1.] + +The almost invariable custom was for the body of the parishioners at a +vestry meeting in Easter week to choose two church-wardens for the next +year. But neither the number nor the mode of appointment was at this +time quite fixed. During the first half of the seventeenth century +clergymen were inclined to magnify their office, and the canons of 1603 +and 1639 gave to the minister of the parish some control over the +choice of the wardens; although whenever the rights of the parishioners +were asserted and an established custom shown, the courts upheld this +custom against ecclesiastical encroachments. [Footnote: Toulmin Smith, +The Parish, 78-87.] + +The financial powers of the church-wardens were considerable, though +exercised in most cases along with the constable, and in many only +after the approval of the whole body of parishioners at a vestry +meeting. They had, of course, the duty of providing for the repairs of +the church and of taxing their neighbors for this purpose. Unless +previously settled upon by the parishioners themselves, they levied and +collected the local taxes already described as being imposed by the +justices upon the parishes for various purposes. They had the power to +seize and sell the property of such parishioners as refused or +neglected to pay the amounts assessed upon them. Many of the parishes +also received considerable sums by gift or bequest, which were +invested, and the income expended for the poor or other parish objects. +[Footnote: Ibid., chap, v., App.] + +Property in land and houses also belonged to some parishes, apart from +the minister's glebe, and the renting and accounts fell within the +church-warden's duties. Various means of combining the securing of +funds with much neighborhood merriment, even in those days of militant +Puritanism, were used by the parish authorities, such as "church-ales," +"pigeon-holes," Hock-tide games, Easter games, processions, and festive +gatherings, at all of which farthings, pence, and shillings were +gathered. [Footnote: Various quotations in Toulmin Smith, The Parish, +chap, vii., S 12.] Such accounts of these various funds and the record +of the thousand and one petty expenditures for local purposes as were +kept were usually the work of the church-wardens and made their office +one of real local importance. In fact, a whole cycle of parish life +passes before us in these accounts. "Paid the carpenters 5s. for a +barrow to carry the people that died of the sickness to church to bury +them." "For a coat for the whipper, and making, 3s." "For too payre of +glovys for Robin Hode and Mayde Maryan, 3d." "Received for the May- +pole, 1 pound 4s." "Paid Robert Warden, the constable, which he +disbursed for carrying away the witches, 11s." [Footnote: Ibid., 465- +472.] + +The church-wardens, under a law of Queen Mary, [Footnote: 2 and 3 +Philip and Mary, chap. viii.] with the constables and parishioners, +selected the surveyors of highways; and under two statutes of Queen +Elizabeth [Footnote: 8 Eliz., chap, xv., and 14 Eliz., chap. xi.] every +year appointed two men who should be named "the distributers of the +provision for the destruction of noisome fowle and vermine." A tax was +levied upon the parishioners to provide these officers with funds, and +it then became their duty to pay bounties for the heads and eggs of +crows, rooks, starlings, and many other birds. A long list of four- +footed beasts is also included in the definition of "vermine," and +rates ranging from a shilling for a fox to a halfpenny for a mole were +established. [Footnote: Lambarde, Office of Distributers, etc., 92.] +The mole-catcher was a regular employe of some parishes. [Footnote: +Hist. MSS. Commission, Report III., App., 331; V., App., 597.] + +Finally, the church-wardens were ex-officio overseers of the poor. By +the great poor law of 1597 the church-wardens, along with four +overseers of the poor appointed each year at Easter by the justices, +had the whole charge of the relief of the poor. [Footnote: 8 Leonard, +The Poor Law, 76, etc.] + +They were to estimate the annual costs and to tax their fellow-townsmen +for this purpose. From this time forward taxation for the poor under +the control of parish officers became the most important, as it was the +heaviest, of local charges. The constant efforts of the Privy Council, +through the justices of the peace, to enforce the poor law, kept +church-wardens and other overseers of the poor up to their duties and +engaged them in constant conferences with the justices and in making +reports, as well as in the actual work of poor relief. + +A vestry clerk existed in some parishes, and later such an office +became quite general and influential, but at this period the records +were generally preserved by one of the church-wardens or by the +minister. The vestry-clerk is of special interest as being apparently +the prototype of the town-clerk in the American colonies. [Footnote: +Howard, Local Constitutional History of the U. S., 39.] + +Various other petty officers existed, but their duties were either +identical with those already described, or insignificant, or so +exceptional as not to reward inquiry and description here. Such were +the beadle, sexton, haywards, ale-conners, waymen, way-wardens, +sidesmen, synodsmen, swornmen, questmen, and perhaps some others. +[Footnote: Discussed in Charming, Town and County Government in the +English Colonies (Johns Hopkins University Studies, II.), No. 10, p. +18, etc.] + +Such being the officers whose sphere of activity was the parish, it +remains to describe the general assembly of the people of the parish, +the vestry. This name arose apparently from the practice of meeting in +the part of the church in which the vestments were kept. Ordinarily, +all who held house or land in a parish, no matter on what tenure, were +members of the vestry of the parish. All inhabitants, therefore--land- +owners, free tenants, copy-holders, laborers occupying cottages, even +those who held land in the parish but lived somewhere else--were by law +at liberty to attend the meetings of the parishioners and to join in +the exercise of their functions. + +Such a body is of great interest. [Footnote: Coke, 5 Report, 66, 67.] +Those officials whose positions and functions have been discussed in +the two preceding chapters drew all their powers from the crown, and +the duties that they performed were imposed upon them by statute law or +by royal instruction. The same is true of a considerable part of the +activity of constables and church-wardens. But the vestry of the parish +existed as a body which within certain limits had powers of government +of its own, and could impose duties upon parish officials, appoint +committees and require services from them, adopt by-laws which bound +all the inhabitants, and impose taxes upon the landholders of the +parish which they were bound to pay. + +Yet evidences of anything like regular meetings of the parishioners +are, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so scanty as to leave +considerable doubt as to whether they occurred at all generally. They +are not mentioned in the legal text-books of the time, which were, of +course, written by men who looked from above downward and were not +interested in local institutions as such. A few accounts of such vestry +meetings remain, [Footnote: E.g., those of Steeple Ashton, quoted in +Toulmin Smith, The Parish, chap, vii, SS 12.] but the action taken at +them was apparently restricted to the choice of parish officers, the +adoption of by-laws for the carrying out of necessary taxation and +other distribution of burdens, and for matters connected with the +building or repair of the church. The attendance probably consisted +only of the more substantial members of the parish and of those who +held office and must present reports. The parish life resided more in +the activity of its officials than of its assembly. Vigorous local +self-government could not have existed without leaving more distinct +traces than it has done, and our study of the political system of the +time will have made it clear that much local independence was not +suited to the period of the Tudors and Stuarts. [Footnote: See Toulmin +Smith, The Parish, chaps, ii., iv., vii.; and Gneist, Self-Government, +book III., chap, ix., S 115.] Such was the provision for the carrying +out of those matters of local concern in the county, the hundred, and +rural parish which were not performed by immediate officials or +commissioners of the central government. It is evident that in the +early seventeenth century the motive power for almost all government, +local as well as general, emanated from the national government--from +the king, Privy Council, and Parliament. It was a vigorous, assertive, +centralized administration, eager to carry out its will and enforce +order, uniformity, and its own ideas upon all persons and bodies in +England. No shade of doubt of their own wisdom or reluctance to +override local or individual liberty of action troubled the thought or +weakened the resolution of the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns and their +ministers. Nor were their Parliaments antagonistic to the principle of +centralized government, even when they wished to curb unrestrained +royal control of it. Strong government was in entire consonance with +the spirit of the time. + +Yet this ambitious central government was working with very inadequate +and unsuitable instruments. Instead of a body of efficient and +responsible officials, directly and immediately dependent upon their +superiors, receiving wages and hoping for promotion, such as successful +centralized governments have usually possessed, the king and council +made use of the old and cumbrous machinery of local self-government as +they found it. It was quite unsuited to their purposes. Sheriffs, +coroners, high and petty constables, church-wardens, even justices of +the peace, had come down from a period when government was of quite +another and more primitive character, in which the central power +counted for far less, local powers for far more. Most of the local +officials were unpaid, and the others were dependent on insignificant +fees for such money reward as they obtained. The labors imposed upon +them were performed only from a sense of duty, loyalty, or necessity, +not as a fair return for remuneration received. + +There was little provision for a wise selection of office-holders, so +far as regarded their suitability to the objects of the central +administration. The county and hundred officials were taken from one +restricted class, the rural gentry; the township and parish officials +were chosen by their neighbors from their own number. In a word, the +government of Elizabeth, James, and Charles was trying to carry on an +ambitious, centralized administration by means of an unpaid, untrained, +and carelessly selected group of local officials, whose offices had +been established and whose characters had been formed for a system of +much more limited powers and of more independent local life. + +At certain times, as in the period of personal government of Charles +I., something like a hierarchy seemed about to develop itself, in which +the Privy Council, speaking in the name of the king, gave instructions +to the justices of assize, the justices of assize to the sheriffs and +justices of the peace, the justices of the peace to the high-constable +of the hundred, and the high-constable to the petty constable, church- +wardens, and other township or parish officials. But no such regularity +was attained; the council frequently communicated directly with the +justices of the peace, the sheriff with the parish officers; and the +administration became no more systematic as time went on. + +The primary governmental division of the country, the shire, was the +sphere of much activity; but it was not automatic, and acted wholly or +almost wholly in response to pressure from above. The ultimate unit of +local government, the parish, township, or manor, had many and +interesting functions, but they were for the most part either declining +survivals of earlier powers, or new forms of activity imposed upon it +from above. It had the necessary officials and the political rights to +enable it to do a great deal, but it showed few signs of vigorous life. +Thus government in England in the early seventeenth century was so +organized that at the top was an energetic national government, midway +an active but dependent county organization, and at the bottom the +parish with a residuum of ancient but unutilized powers of self- +government. + +No greater contrast could be noted in the position of men than that +between the Englishman at home, in the early seventeenth century, and +the Englishman who emigrated to America. Almost all the conditions that +surrounded the former were reversed in the case of the latter. The +pressure of central government was immediately and almost completely +withdrawn. Many of the most urgent activities of government in England, +such as the administration of the poor law and the restriction of +vagabondage, almost ceased in the colonies. The class of settled rural +gentry from which most local officials were drawn in England did not +exist in America. On the other hand, the wilderness, the Indians, the +freedom from restraint, the religious liberty, the opportunity for +economic and social rise in the New World made a set of conditions +which had been quite unknown in the mother-country. + +As a result, the colonists had to make a choice from among the +institutions with which they were familiar at home, of those which were +applicable to their new needs. Of such institutions of local government +in England there were, as has been seen, a considerable number and +variety. Naturally, some functions which had been prominent at home +were reduced to insignificance in the colonies; some which had been +almost forgotten or had remained quite undeveloped in England gained +unwonted importance in America. Almost every local official or body +which existed in England reappeared in some part or other of the +English colonies, although often with much altered powers and duties. +All the familiar names are to be found, though sometimes with new +meanings and always more or less considerably adapted to new +conditions. Moreover, the choice was in the main restricted to familiar +English institutions, for in the great variety of system in different +parts of the colonies there was scarcely an official or body which did +not have its prototype in England. [Footnote: Howard, Local +Constitutional History of the U. S.; Channing, Town and County +Government in the English Colonies; Adams, Germanic Origin of New +England Towns. Cf. also Tyler, England in America; Andrews, Colonial +Self-Government; Greene, Colonial Commonwealth (American Nation +Series), IV., V., VI.] + +In this as in other matters, the foundations of America were laid in +European conditions and occurrences. European needs sent explorers on +their voyages of discovery, and European ambitions equipped adventurers +for their expeditions of conquest; the commercial projects of England, +France, Holland, and Sweden led to the establishment of the principal +New-World colonies; the economic exigencies and the political and +religious struggles of Europe sent a flood of settlers to people them; +the institutions of Spain, France, Holland, and England all found a +lodgment in the western continent; and those of England became the +basis of the great nation which has reached so distinct a primacy in +America. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +CRITICAL ESSAY ON AUTHORITIES + +BIBLIOGRAPHIES + +No general bibliography of the whole field of this volume exists, +although two comprehensive publications (both described below) have +special bibliographic sections: The Cambridge Modern History has full +lists of books, less well analyzed than the systematic and useful +bibliographies in Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale. + +GENERAL SECONDARY WORKS + +Several general histories of Europe covering the field of this volume +have been published in recent years or are now appearing. The most +important are: Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale (12 vols., 1893- +1901), of which vols. III. and VI. apply most nearly to the subjects +included in this book; The Cambridge Modern History (to be in 12 vols., +1902-), especially vols. I.-IV.; H. H. Helmolt, History of the World, +translated from the German (to be in 8 vols., 1902-), especially vols. +I. and VII. Helmolt differs from all other general histories by its +arrangement in accordance with ethnographical and geographical +divisions rather than historical epochs; he pays also especial +attention to economic phenomena. The following three volumes in the +series entitled Periods of European History, give an account of this +period in somewhat shorter form: Richard Lodge, The Close of the Middle +Ages, 1272-1494 (1901); A. H. Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, +1494-1598 (1897); H. O. Wakeman, Europe, 1598-1715 (1904). + +Two excellent histories of the period of discovery are O. F. Peschel, +Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen (1858), and Sophus Ruge, +Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen (1881). More recent works +are S. Gunther, Das Zeitalter der Entdeckungen (1901), and Carlo +Errera, L'Epoca delle Grandi Scoperti Geografiche (1902). + +SPECIAL QUESTION ON COLUMBUS + +The seemingly well-established view that Columbus when he discovered +America was in search of a direct western route to the East Indies and +Cathay, and that he had been led to form this plan by correspondence +with the Florentine scholar Toscanelli, was attacked by Henry Vignaud, +La Lettre et la Carte de Toscanelli sur la Route des Indes par L'Orient +(1901), and in a translation and extension of the same work under the +title Toscanelli and Columbus (1902). Vignaud considers the letter of +Toscanelli a forgery, and the object of Columbus in making the voyage +the discovery of a certain island of which he had been informed by a +dying pilot. His work elicited many replies in the form of book reviews +or more extended works. Of the former may be mentioned those of E. G. +Bourne (American Historical Review, January, 1903) and Sophus Ruge +(Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1902); among the +latter, the monumental work, Christopher Columbus, His Life, His Work, +His Remains, by John Boyd Thacher (I., 1903). Few scholars seem to have +been convinced by the arguments of Vignaud, but the whole question must +be considered as still undetermined. The last word is E. G. Bourne, +Spain in America (The American Nation, III., 1904). + +SOURCES + +A large number of the contemporary accounts of the early expeditions of +discovery and adventure are published by the Hakluyt Society. These +volumes are provided with introductions of great value and with +numerous maps, glossaries, and other material illustrative of the time. +They cover a long period of time and include many lines of travel not +referred to in this book; but many of them refer to the early +expeditions to the southeast, west, and northwest which had much to do +with the discovery and exploration of America. Some of the most +important publications of this character in the series are the +following: Select Letters of Columbus, edited by R. H. Major (II, and +XLIII, 1849 and 1870); Narratives of Early Voyages to the Northwest, +edited by Thomas Rundall (V., 1851); India in the Fifteenth Century, +edited by R. H. Major (XXII., 1859); The Commentaries of the Great +Afonso Dalboquerque, edited by Walter de Gray Birch (LIII., LV., LXII., +LXIX., 1875, 1880, and 1883); The Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten +to the East Indies, edited by A. C. Burnell and P. A. Tiele (LXX. and +LXXI., 1884); The Journal of Christopher Columbus, edited by C. R. +Markham (LXXXVI., 1892); The Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, Written +by Gomes Eannes de Azurara, edited by C. R. Beazley and Edgar Prestage +(XCV. and C., 1896 and 1900); The First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, edited +by E. G. Ravenstein (XCIX., 1898); Texts and Versions of John de Piano +Carpini and William de Rubruquis, edited by C. R. Beazley (1903). + +The standard editions of the narratives of the early land travellers in +eastern Asia are those of the Recueil de Voyages et de Memoires publie +par la Societe de Geographie, including (IV., 1839) Relations des +Voyages de Guillaume de Rubruk, Jean du Plan Carpin, etc. (edited by M. +A. R. D'Avezac); and Schafer et Cordier, Recueil de Voyages et de +Documents pour Servir a L'Histoire de la Geographie, especially +"Voyages en Asie ... du ... Odoric de Pordenone" (edited by Henri +Cordier). English translations of Rubruquis and Pordenone also appear +as an appendix in Travels of Sir John Mandeville, edited by A. W. +Pollard (1900). Sir John Mandeville is worthless as an historical +source, as his genuine material is all drawn from these sources and +from Marco Polo, and there is no probability that he ever travelled in +the East. His own additions are usually mendacious. The standard +edition of Marco Polo is that of Sir Henry Yule (2 vols., 1871). This +has just been reprinted with additional editorial notes by Henri +Cordier, under the title, The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, +Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, etc. (1903). A +valuable collection of narratives of early discovery is M. F. de +Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos (5 vols., 1825- +1837). Those of particular interest to England are in Richard Hakluyt, +Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries (1589, reprinted 1903, +to be in 12 vols.). + +GEOGRAPHY AND COMMERCE + +Among the standard histories of mediaeval and modern geography are +Joachim Lelewel, Geographie du Moyen Age (4 vols., 1852-1857); Vivien +de St. Martin, Histoire de la Geographie et des Decouvertes +Geographiques (1873); M. F. Vicomte de Santarem, Essai sur L'Histoire +de la Cosmographie pendant le Moyen Age (3 vols., 1849-1852); and C. R. +Beazley, The Dawn of Modern Geography (vols. I. and II., 1897 and +1901). A full account of the history and development of maps, +especially of the form known as portolani, is to be found in the two +works translated from the Swedish of A. E. Nordenskiold: Facsimile +Atlas to the Early History of Cartography (1889), Periplus, an Essay on +the Early History of Charts and Sailing-Directions (1 vol. and an +atlas, 1897); G. Wauverman, Histoire de L'Ecole Cartographique Belge et +Anversois du 16 degrees Siecle (2 vols., 1895). + +The state of geographical knowledge at the beginning of the period of +explorations is well described in C. R. Beazley, Introduction to the +volume of the Hakluyt Society's publications for 1899. F. Kunstmann, +Die Kenntniss Indiens in XV. Jahrhunderts (1863); and G. H. Pertz, Der +Aelteste Versuch zur Entdeckung des Seeweges nach Ostindien (1859), +describe two important phases of that subject. + +The fullest and best work on the relations between the Orient and the +Occident, the trade-routes, the objects of trade, and the methods of +its administration is Wilhelm Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels im +Mittelalter (2 vols., 1879). There is a French translation of this work +(1885-1887), which is later and has been corrected by the author. There +is a valuable article on ancient trade in Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV., +48, etc. Much that is suggestive and informing concerning Eastern +commerce and trade-routes can be found in Sir W. W. Hunter, History of +British India, I. (1899), and on the products of the East in Sir George +Birdwood, Report of Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition of 1878 +(1878). Some information concerning trade organization in the +Mediterranean Sea and throughout Europe can be found in William +Cunningham, An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects (2 +vols., 1898-1900). H. H. Helmolt, General History, VII., pt. i., pp. 1- +139, has a long and valuable chapter on "The Economic Development of +Western Europe Since the Time of the Crusades," by Dr. Richard Mayr. +John Fiske, The Discovery of America (2 vols., 1892), contains an +interesting popular account of the trade conditions of the time and of +those explorations which were directed westward. + +The formation of the later commercial companies is described and the +provisions of their charters analyzed in P. Bonnassieux, Les Grandes +Compagnies de Commerce (1892). This work is somewhat superficial, being +based, apparently, entirely on works in the French and Latin languages, +and using secondary materials where primary sources are attainable; but +it stands almost alone in its subject, and has, therefore, considerable +importance. + +Naval architecture is described in Auguste Jal, Archeologie Navale (2 +vols., 1840); and J. P. E. Jurien de la Graviere, Les Manns du XV. et +du XVI. Siecle (1879); Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, Don John of +Austria (2 vols., 1883). + +ITALY AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN + +The best general account of Italy during the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries is in Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale, III., chaps, ix. +and x., and IV., chap. i. For the intellectual and artistic history of +Italy as a whole, J. Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in +Italy (1860, English translation, 2 vols.), is the most satisfactory +work. J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy (7 vols., 1875-1886), takes +up many sides of the period. A good general history of Venice in small +compass is H. P. Brown, Venice: a Historical Sketch of the Republic +(1893). + +M. G. Canale, Storia del Commercio dei Viaggi, ... degl' Italiani +(1866), and Storia della Republica di Genoa (1858-1864), contain much +information about Mediterranean trade and voyages, especially of the +Genoese. + +The commerce of Venice is described in H. F. Brown, Calendar of State +Papers, Venetian, Introduction, I. (1864). + +Of the fondaco and the German merchants in Venice a description is +given in H. Simonsfeld, Der Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venedig (2 vols., +1887). Many additional sources are in G. Thomas, Capitolare dei +Visdomini del Fontego dei Todechi (1874). A valuable article on the +same subject is W. Heyd, "Das Haus der deutschen Kaufleute in Venedig," +in Historische Zeitschrift, XXXII., 193-220. + +The standard history of the rise of the Ottoman Empire is J. W. +Zinkeisen, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reichs in Europa (6 vols., 1840). +More modern works are A. La Jonquiere, Histoire de L'Empire Ottoman +(1881); and G. F. Herzberg, Geschichte des Bysantischen und des +Osmanischen Reiches (1883). + +An excellent work on the fifteenth century is Edwin Pears, The +Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of +Constantinople by the Turks (2 vols., 1903). For later history, see L. +von Ranke, Die Osmanen in XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert (1827). A short +and good popular account is A. Lane-Poole, Turkey (1886). Good sections +are devoted to the Ottoman Turks in the Cambridge Modern History (I., +chap, iii., by J. B. Bury); and in Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire +Generale (III., chap, xvi., and IV., chap, xix.), by A. Rambaud. + +PORTUGAL IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY + +A short but excellent history of Portugal is H. M. Stephens, The Story +of Portugal (1891, Stories of the Nations Series). + +The interesting character and significant work of Prince Henry the +Navigator have made him the subject of many biographies. One of the +earliest of these was G. de Veer, Prinz Heinrich und seine Zeit (1864). +More detailed is R. H. Major, Life of Prince Henry the Navigator (1868, +abbreviated edition, 1874). A number of other biographies were called +forth by the interest in the five hundredth anniversary of Henry's +birth, which was coincident with the four hundredth anniversary of the +discovery of America. A partial list of these is as follows: C. R. +Beazley, Prince Henry the Navigator (1890); G. Wauverman, Henri le +Navigateur et L'Academie Portugaise de Sagres (1890); J. P. O. Martins, +Os Filhos de Dom Joao I. (1891); M. Barradas, O Infante Dom Henrique +(1894); A. Alves, Dom Henrique o Infante (1894); J. E. Wappaus, +Untersuchungen uber... Heinrich (1842). Two valuable essays, Prince +Henry the Navigator and The Demarcation Line of Pope Alexander III., by +E. G. Bourne, are republished in his Essays in Historical Criticism +(1901). + +The most important original source for the early exorations of the +Portuguese is Gomes Eannes de Azurara, Chronicle of the Discovery and +Conquest of Guinea (2 vols., Hakluyt Society, 1896 and 1899). The +voyages of Cadamosto are published by the Hakluyt Society. Long +extracts from the accounts of the voyages of Diego Gomez are given in +C. R. Beazley, Prince Henry, 289-298, and in R. H. Major, Prince Henry, +288-298. A number of original documents illustrative of this period are +contained in Alguns Documentos do Archivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo +Acerca das Navagacoes e Conquistas Portuguezas (1892). An account of +the latest stages of the Portuguese advance to India is given in F. C. +Danvers, The Portuguese in India (1894). An almost contemporary account +of the explorations is J. Barros, Decadas da Asia (first published +1552, etc.); the first five books have been translated into German by +E. Feust (1844). + +SPAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES + +The great collection of sources for the history of Spain is the +Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de Espana (112 vols., +1842-1895). Matters more particularly relating to the subjects of this +book appear in vols. I., III., VI., XIII., XIX., XXIV., XXVIII., +XXXIX., and LI. The proceedings of the cortes are published by the +Academia de la Historia, Cortes de los Antiguos Reinos de Leon y de +Castilla (4 vols., 1861-1884). The records of those called by Ferdinand +and Isabella are in vol. IV. (1882). A careful analysis and +introduction to these records is by M. Colmeiro (2 vols., 1883-1884). + +The three most important chronicles of Spain contemporary with +Ferdinand and Isabella are Hernando del Pulgar, Cronica de los Reyes +Catolicos (1780); and Andre Bernaldez, Historia de los Reyes (1878). + +The institutions of Spain are described in detail in two admirable +works: J. M. Antequera, Historia de la Legislacion Espanola (1874); and +F. M. Marina, Ensayo Historico-critico sobre la Antigua Legislacion ... +de Leon y Castilla (1834). There is a short but systematic and valuable +account of Spanish institutions in The Cambridge Modern History (I., +chap, xi., by H. B. Clarke). The most satisfactory general description +of the changes in Spanish institutions during the reign of the Catholic +sovereigns is J. H. Mariejol, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand et Isabelle: le +Gouvernement, les Institutions, et les Moeurs (1892). William H. +Prescott, The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic (various +editions), is less uncritical in character, and consequently more +trustworthy, than the other works of this author. An important study of +the personal character of Isabella is Clemencin, Elogio de la Reina +Catolica, in Real Academia de la Historia, Memorias, IV. An important +and suggestive study of this period is W. Maurenbrecher, Spanien unter +den Katholischen Konigen: Studien und Skizzen zur Geschichte der +Reformationszeit (1857). Of somewhat similar character is W. Havemann, +Darstellungen aus der inneren Geschichte Spaniens wahrend des XV., XVI. +und XVII. Jahrhunderts (1850). The more purely political history is +best given in M. Danvilla y Collado, El Poder Civil en Espana (6 vols., +1885-1887). The expulsion of the Jews is described in the third volume +of J. Amador de los Rios, Los Judios de Espana y Portugal (3 vols., +1875-1876); that of the Moriscos in H. C. Lea, The Moriscos of Spain, +their Conversion and Expulsion (1901). Much valuable description of +this period is also given in H. C. Lea, Chapters from the Religious +History of Spain (1890). Mr. Lea has also an important article, "The +Policy of Spain towards the Indies" (Yale Review, August, 1899). The +military history of Ferdinand's reign is given in P. Boissonade, +Reunion de la Navarre a la Castille (1893), and in the large general +histories of Spain, such as A. Canovas del Castillo, Historia General +de Espana (1894), and Vicente de la Fuente, Historia General de Espana +(30 vols., 1850-1867). + +The organization of the Casa da Contractacion is fully described in +Primeras Ordenanzas ... de la Contractacion de las Indias, by J. de +Veitia Linage (1672, "made English" by Captain John Stevens, under the +title The Spanish Rule of Trade to the West Indies, 1702). It is also +described in Richard Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, IV. Economic +conditions are further described in two books by K. Habler, Geschichte +der Fugger'schen Handlung in Spanien (1897); Die Wirtschaftliche Blute +Spaniens im XVI. Jahrhundert und ihr Verfall (1888). + +FRANCE IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES + +The great mass of contemporary writings for this period is published +partly in the great Collection de Documents Inedits (about 280 vols., +1835-), partly in other collections, such as that of Michaud et +Poujoulat, Correspondance D'Orient, 1830-1831 (7 vols., 1835), and +partly as individual publications. The royal enactments down to 1514 +are best edited in Ordonnances des Roys de France (21 vols., 1723- +1849). The Recueil General des Anciennes Lois Francaises, edited by +Isambert and Taillandier (29 vols., 1822-1833), extends later in time +but is inferior in fulness and accuracy. + +A short general history of France during this period is A. J. Grant, +The French Monarchy, 1483-1789 (2 vols., 1900). Of the excellent work, +Lavisse, Histoire de France, the latest section to appear is V., pt. +i., by H. Lemonnier, which covers the period 1492-1547. + +For the commercial history of France valuable works are H. Pigeonneau, +Histoire du Commerce de la France (2 vols., 1887-1889); Pierre Clement, +Histoire de la Vie et de L'Administration de Colbert (2 vols., 1846); +G. Fagniez, "Le Commerce de la France sous Henri IV.," in Revue +Historique, May-June, 1881; and F. Bourquelot, Etude sur les Foires de +Champagne (Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de L'Institut de +France, series II., vol. V., 1865). For the commercial companies in +Canada, see H. P. Biggar, Early Trading Companies of New France (1901). + +THE NETHERLANDS AND GERMANY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES + +The best history of the Netherlands is P. J. Blok, History of the +People of the Netherlands (1892, in part translated by Ruth Putnam, 3 +vols., 1898-1900); J. L. Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic (many +editions), still has value and much interest, but the work is +uncritical and based on inadequate study of the sources. C. M. Davies, +History of Holland and the Dutch Nation (3 vols., 1851), is of special +value for its attention to the internal organization of the Dutch +nation. Robert Fruin, Geschiedniss der Staatsinstellingen in Nederland +(edited by H. T. Colenbrander, 1901), is a much more detailed and +modern work, the first two books of which refer to the period of this +volume. In it are to be found abundant references to the sources of +Dutch institutions. Douglas Campbell, The Puritan in Holland, England, +and America (2 vols., 1892), is a vivacious work including much +description of conditions in Holland and England during this period. It +is, however, written in a spirit of controversial exaggeration which +reduces its historical value to small proportions. The long and +valuable paper "William Usselinx," by J. P. Jameson (American +Historical Society, Papers, II., 1888), contains much information +concerning political and commercial conditions in the Netherlands. +There is a short description of the municipal organization of Holland +in an article by J. F. Jameson in the Magazine of American History, +VIII., 315-330. The charter of the Dutch West India Company is in E. B. +O'Callaghan, History of New Netherland, I., App. A (1855); and in +Samuel Hazard, State Papers, I. + +The general history of Germany for this period can be Studied from the +following volumes of the series entitled Allgemeine Geschichte in +Einzeldarstellungen--viz., F. von Bezold, Geschichte der deutschen +Reformation (1890); G. Droysen, Geschichte der Gegenreformation (1893); +G. Winter, Der dreissigjahrigen Krieges (1893); B. Erdmannsdorfer, +Deutsche Geschichte von westfalischen Frieden bis Friedrichs der +Grossen (2 vols., 1892). The last work contains in its first book a +valuable resume of the results of the Thirty Years' War and the +condition of Germany at the time. E. Armstrong, The Emperor Charles V. +(2 vols., 1902), is an excellent account of Germany during the middle +years of the sixteenth century. Anton Gindely, The Thirty Years' War +(English translation, 2 vols., 1884), is a standard work on the Thirty +Years' War. + +The religious changes of the time are described in a scholarly but +extremely dry fashion in W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, +III. (English translation, 1900). L. von Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte im +Zeitalter der Reformation, translated into English (3 vols., 1845- +1847), is a well-known work. More detailed accounts of the Anabaptists +are given in H. W. Erbkam, Geschichte der Protestantischen Sekten in +Zeitalter der Reformation (1848); L. Keller, Geschichte der +Wiedertaufer (1880); and Max Goebel, Geschichte des Christlichen Leben +in der rheinschwestphdlischen evangelischen Kirche (3 vols., 1849- +1860). + +ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES + +BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The standard bibliographical guide in early English +history is Charles Gross, Sources and Literature of English History +from the Earliest Times to about 1485 (1900). + +GENERAL WORKS.--The best general history of the reign of Henry VII. is +W. Busch, England under the Tudors (I., Henry VII., 1895); on the early +part of the reign of Henry VIII., J. S. Brewer, The Reign of Henry +VIII. (2 vols., 1884); J. A. Froude, History of England from the Fall +of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Armada (12 vols., 1856-1870). +Notwithstanding the criticism to which this work has been subjected it +remains the most detailed, serious, and valuable history of England in +the sixteenth century. A. F. Pollard, England under Protector Somerset +(1900), is a valuable survey of the period 1547-1551. S. R. Gardiner, +History of England from 1603 to 1642 (10 vols., 1883-1884), History of +the Great Civil War, 1642-1649 (4 vols., 1886-1891), and History of the +Commonwealth and Protectorate (3 vols., 1894-1903), form a series of +great value, covering more than half of the seventeenth century. Henry +Hallam, Constitutional History of England (3 vols., 1829), is +serviceable. L. O. Pike, Constitutional History of the House of Lords +(1894), and A. V. Dicey, The Privy Council (1895), are valuable +monographs. + +SOURCES.--The sources for English history during this period are to be +found principally in the Acts of the Privy Council (in progress 1890-), +Calendars of State Papers (about 300 vols.), Statutes of the Realm, +1235-1713 (11 vols.), Journals of the House of Lords (16 vols. to +1700), Journals of the House of Commons (13 vols. to 1700), Sir S. +D'Ewes, Journals of the Period of Elizabeth (1682), J. Rushworth, +Historical Collections (1703), Historical Manuscripts Commission, +Reports (106 parts), Deputy Keeper of the Rolls, Public Records, +Reports (64 vols.), and in a vast number of detached publications of +contemporary journals, correspondence, etc. + +Many of the most important statutes and other state papers are +collected in G. W. Prothero, Select Statutes and other Constitutional +Documents of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I., 1559-1625 (1894), +and S. R. Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, +1628-1660 (1889). Each of these collections has an admirable +introduction discussing the history and institutions of the period. +Other collections illustrating the constitutional history of the time +are George B. Adams and H. Morse Stephens, Select Documents of English +Constitutional History (1901); and Mabel Hill, Liberty Documents +(1901). The following collections of sources also illustrate social +conditions: C. W. Colby, Selections from the Sources of English History +(1899); Elizabeth K. Kendall, Source-Book of English History (1900); +Ernest P. Henderson, Side-Lights on English History (1900). + +COMMERCIAL HISTORY.--The Merchants Adventurers are discussed and +illustrated in W. E. Lingelbach, Laws and Ordinances of the Merchant +Adventurers (1902), and The Internal Organization of the Merchant +Adventurers (1902); in G. Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik (2 vols., +1881); Richard Ehrenberg, England and Hamburg (1896); and Charles +Gross, The Gild Merchant (2 vols., 1890). The commercial companies +generally are described in Cawston and Keane, The Early English +Chartered Companies (1896), a book of slight value and limited extent +of information apart from the fact that it is practically the only work +covering the field. David Macpherson, Annals of Commerce (4 vols., +1802), is a book of old-fashioned learning on the subject. For the East +India Company there is a large literature. Some of the sources are The +Charters of the East India Company (no date or place of publication); +Birdwood and Foster, The First Letter Book of the East India Company, +1600-1619 (1893); Henry Stevens, Dawn of British Trade to the East +Indies (1886). Of more general histories the most recent and one of the +best is Beckles Wilson, Ledger and Sword (1903). + +Events in England affecting the early history of Virginia are related +and the original papers given in Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United +States (2 vols., 1891). Valuable articles by H. L. Osgood bearing on +this general subject are: "England and the Colonies" (Political Science +Quarterly, II.); "Political Ideas of the Puritans" (ibid., VI., Nos. 1, +2); and "The Colonial Corporation" (ibid., XI., Nos. 2, 3). See also +his American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (2 vols., 1904). On +general commercial conditions, William Cunningham, Growth of English +Industry and Commerce (revised ed., 1904). + +RELIGIOUS HISTORY.--W. E. Griffis, The Pilgrims in their Three Homes +(1898); Daniel Neal, History of the Puritans (4 vols., 1732-1738); W. +A. Shaw, The English Church During the Commonwealth (1900); E. +Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation (1897), gives interesting and +unfamiliar details of the religious sects in England. A. B. Hinds, The +England of Elizabeth (1895), is a careful study of the origins of +English Puritanism on the Continent. G. P. Gooch, English Democratic +Ideas in the Seventeenth Century (1898), throws light on the various +sects. William Sewel, History of the Quakers (1725), is a standard +history on the origin of that body. + +C. G. Walpole, The Kingdom of Ireland (1882), describes the "Plantation +of Ulster" and the conditions that led to the emigration of the Scotch- +Irish. Of value also are W. E. H. Lecky, England in the Eighteenth +Century (8 vols., 1878-1890); J. P. Prendergast, The Cromwellian +Settlement of Ireland (1865); and H. Green, The Scotch-Irish in America +(1895). + +ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT.--For local government the admirable +bibliography is Charles Gross, Bibliography of British Municipal +History, Including Gilds and Parliamentary Representatives (Harvard +Historical Studies, V., 1897). Contemporary legal treatises concerning +county government are Michael Dalton, Officium Vicecomitum, or the +Office and Authority of Sheriffs (1623), and The Country Justice +(1681); William Greenwood, Authority, Jurisdiction, and Method of +Keeping County Courts, Courts-Leet, and Courts-Baron, etc. (1659); +William Lambarde, Eirenarcha, or the Office of the Justices of Peace +(1588); A. Fitzherbert, L'Office et Authorities de Justices de Peace +(1514), often quoted as "Crompton", an editor who enlarged the original +work in 1583; John Wilkinson, Office and Authority of Coroners and +Sheriffs (1628). All these appear in numerous editions, the above dates +being, as far as ascertained, those of the earliest editions. + +Few records of county government exist to any large extent, and very +few have been printed. Among them are three bodies of quarter-sessions +records. John Lister, West Riding Sessions Rolls, 1597-1602 (Yorkshire +Archaeological and Topographical Association, Records Series, III., +1888); J. C. Jeaffreson, Middlesex County Records, 1549-1608 (Middlesex +County Records Society, 1886-1892); Ernest Axon, in Record Society of +Lancaster and Cheshire, Manchester Sessions, XLII. Some material for +Wiltshire and Worcestershire is published in the Historical Manuscripts +Commission, Reports, VI., VII. + +A. H. A. Hamilton, Quarter-Sessions ... chiefly of Devon (1878), +contains much on the subject. E. M. Leonard, The Early History of the +English Poor Relief (1900), is a scholarly study involving much +description of local administration and the central and local +governments. + +For the parish, Richard Burn, Ecclesiastical Law (2 vols., 1763); +William Sheppard, Offices and Duties of Constables, Borsholders, +Tythingmen, etc. (1641); William Lambarde, Duties of Church-wardens and +Duties of Constables, affixed to his Eirenarcha (1581); George Meriton, +Duties of Constables (1669). For the actual life of the parish, +recourse must be had to the few bodies of such records that are printed +separately or in local histories. Some of these are as follows: J. L. +Glasscock, Records of St. Michael's Church (1882); Collyer and Turner, +Ilkley, Ancient and Modern (1885); W. T. Woodbridge, Rushbrook Parish +Registers (1903); W. O. Massingberd, History of Ormsby (1893); J. P. +Earwaker, Constables' Accounts of Manchester (3 vols., 1891-1892); John +Nichols, Illustration of the Manners, etc., of England from Accounts of +Church-wardens (1797). + +The book that has exerted the most influence on opinion on this subject +is Toulmin Smith, The Parish (1854). It is, however, written in a +spirit of controversy, many of its interpretations of the statutes are +quite incorrect, and it must, therefore, be used with great caution. +Its most valuable contents are its references to sources, and extracts +from local records. Rudolf Gneist, Self-Government, Communalverfassung +und Verwaltungsgeschichte in England (1871), is almost the sole work +covering the whole subject, but it is quite unsatisfactory, being drawn +from a comparatively small group of sources. George E. Howard, Local +Constitutional History of the United States (Johns Hopkins University +Studies, extra vol. IV., 1889), and The Development of the King's Peace +(Nebraska University Studies, I., 1890); Edward Channing, Town and +County Government in the English Colonies of North America (Johns +Hopkins University Studies, II., No. 10), and some other articles by +Herbert B. Adams and others in the same series, include considerable +information on local conditions in England, though their primary +reference is to America. + +[Proofer's note: Index omitted.] + +END OF VOL. I. + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of European Background of +American History, by E. P. Cheyney + |