before never had been done--it was not long ere he received the news of
the Duke of Burgundy's defeat; and he was in hourly expectation of the
report, for letters of advice had reached him before, importing that
the German army was advancing toward the Duke of Burgundy's, and that a
battle was expected between them. Upon which many persons kept their ears
open for the news, in order to carry it to the King. For his custom was
to reward liberally any person who brought him the first tidings of any
news of importance, and to remember the messenger besides. His majesty
also took great delight in talking of it before it arrived, and would
say, "I will give so much to any man who first brings me such and such
news." The Lord du Bouchage and I, being together, happened to receive
the first news of the battle of Morat, and we went with it to the King,
who gave each of us two hundred marks of silver. The Lord du Lude,
who lay without the Plessis, had the first news of the arrival of the
courier, with the letters concerning the battle of Nancy; he commanded
the courier to deliver him the packet, and as he was a great favorite of
the King's he durst not refuse him. By break of day the next morning,
the Lord du Lude knocked at the door next to the King's chamber, and, it
being opened, he delivered in the packet from the Lord of Craon and other
officers. But none of the first letters gave any certainty of the Duke's
death; they only stated that he was seen to run away, and that it was
supposed he had made his escape.
The King was at first so transported with joy at the news he scarce knew
how to behave himself; however, his majesty was still in some perplexity.
On one hand, he was afraid that if the Duke should be taken prisoner by
the Germans, by means of his money, of which he had great store, he would
make some composition with them. On the other, he was doubtful, if the
Duke had made his escape, though defeated for the third time, whether he
should seize upon his towns in Burgundy or not; which he judged not very
difficult to do, since most of the brave men of that country had been
slain in those three battles. As to this last point, he came to this
resolution--which I believe few were acquainted with but myself--that if
the Duke were alive and well, he would command the army which lay ready
in Champagne and Barrois to march immediately into Burgundy, and
seize upon the whole country while it was in that state of terror and
consternation; and when he was in possession of it he would inform the
Duke that the seizure he had made was only to preserve it for him, and
secure it against the Germans, because it was held under the sovereignty
of the crown of France, and therefore he was unwilling it should fall
into their hands, and whatever he had taken should be faithfully
restored; and truly I am of opinion his majesty would have done it,
though many people who are ignorant of the motives that guided the King
will not easily believe it. But this resolution was altered as soon as he
was certain of the Duke of Burgundy's death.
Upon the King's receiving the above-mentioned first letter--which gave no
account of the Duke's death--he immediately sent to Tours, to summon all
his captains and other great personages to attend him. Upon their arrival
he communicated his letters to them. They all pretended great joy; but
to such as more narrowly observed their behavior, it was easy to be
discerned that most of them did but feign it; and, notwithstanding all
their outward dissimulation, they had been better pleased if the Duke of
Burgundy had been successful. The reason of this might be, because the
King was greatly feared, and now, if he should find himself clear and
secure from his enemies, they were afraid they would be reduced, or at
least their offices and pensions retrenched; for there were several
present who had been engaged against him with his brother the Duke of
Guienne in the confederacy called the "Public Good." After his majesty
had discourse with them for some time, he went to mass, and then ordered
dinner to be laid in his chamber, and made them all dine with him; there
being with him his chancellor and some other lords of his council.
The King's discourse at dinner-time was about this affair, and I well
remember that myself and others took particular notice how those who were
present dined; but to speak truth--whether for joy or sorrow I cannot
tell--there was not one of them that half filled his belly; and certainly
it could not have been from modesty or bashfulness before the King, for
there was not one among them but had dined with his majesty many times
before.
As soon as the King rose from table he retired, and distributed to some
persons certain lands belonging to the Duke of Burgundy, as though he had
been dead. He despatched the Bastard of Bourbon, Admiral of France, and
myself into those parts, with full power to receive the homage of all
such as were willing to submit and become his subjects. He ordered us to
set out immediately, and gave us commission to open all his letters and
packets which we might meet by the way, that thereby we might ascertain
whether the Duke was dead or alive. We departed with all speed, though it
was the coldest weather I ever felt in my life. We had not ridden above
half a day's journey when we met a courier, and commanding him to deliver
his letters we learned by them that the Duke of Burgundy was slain, and
that his body had been found among the dead, and recognized by an Italian
page that attended him and by one Monsieur Louppe, a Portuguese, who was
his physician, and who assured the Lord of Craon that it was the Duke his
master, and the Lord of Craon notified the same at once to the King.
Upon receiving this news we rode directly to the suburbs of Abbeville,
and were the first that announced the intelligence to the Duke's
adherents in those parts. We found the inhabitants of the town in treaty
with the Lord of Torcy, for whom they had held a great affection for a
long time. The soldiers and officers of the Duke of Burgundy negotiated
with us, by means of a messenger whom he had sent to them beforehand; and
in confidence of success they dismissed four hundred Flemings who
were then quartered in the town. The citizens, laying hold of this
opportunity, opened the gates immediately to the Lord of Torcy, to the
great prejudice and disadvantage of the captains and officers of the
garrison--for there were seven or eight of them to whom, by virtue of the
King's authority, we had promised money, and pensions for life; but they
never enjoyed the benefit of that promise, because the town was not
surrendered by them. Abbeville was one of the towns that Charles VII
delivered up by the treaty of Arras in the year 1435, which towns were to
return to the crown of France upon default of issue male; so that their
admitting us so easily is not so much to be wondered at.
From thence we marched to Dourlans, and sent a summons to Arras, the
chief town in Artois, and formerly part of the patrimony of the earls of
Flanders, which for want of heirs male always descended to the daughters.
The Lord of Ravestein and the Lord des Cordes, who were in the town of
Arras, offered to enter into a treaty with us at Mount St. Eloy and to
bring some of the chief citizens with them. It was concluded that I
and some others should meet them in the King's behalf; but the Admiral
refused to go himself, because he presumed they would not consent to
grant all our demands. I had not been long at the place of appointment
when the two above-mentioned lords of Ravestein and Des Cordes arrived,
attended by several persons of quality, and by certain commissioners on
the part of the city, one of whom was their pensionary, named Monsieur
John de la Vaquerie, whom they appointed to be their spokesman, and who
since that time has been made first president of the Parliament of Paris.
We demanded in the King's name to have the gates immediately opened and
to be received into the town, for both the town and the whole country
belonged to the King by right of confiscation; and if they refused
to obey this summons, they would be in danger of being besieged, and
compelled to submit by force, since their Duke was defeated, and his
dominions utterly unprovided with means of defence, upon account of their
irrecoverable losses in the three late battles. The lords returned answer
by their speaker Monsieur John de la Vaquerie that the county of Artois
belonged to the lady of Burgundy, daughter of Duke Charles, and descended
to her in a right line from Margaret, Countess of Flanders, Artois,
Burgundy, Nevers, and Rethel, who was married to Philip I, Duke of
Burgundy, son of King John of France, and younger brother to King Charles
V; wherefore they humbly entreated the King that he would observe and
continue the truce that had existed between him and the late Duke of
Burgundy, her father.
Our conference was but short, for we expected to receive this answer; but
the chief design of my going thither was to have a private conference
with some persons that were thereto try if I could bring them over to the
King's interest. I made overtures to some of them, who soon afterward did
his majesty signal service. We found the whole country in a state of very
great consternation, and not without cause; for in eight days' time they
would scarce have been able to raise eight men-at-arms, and for other
soldiers there were not in the whole country above one thousand five
hundred--reckoning horse and foot together--that had escaped from the
battle in which the Duke of Burgundy was slain, and they were quartered
about Namur and Hainault. Their former haughty language was much altered
now, and they spoke with more submission and humility; not that I would
upbraid them with excessive arrogance in times past, but, to speak
impartially, in my time they thought themselves so powerful that they
spoke neither of nor to the King with the same respect as they have done
since; and if people were wise, they would always use such moderate
language in their days of prosperity that in the time of adversity they
would not need to change it.
I returned to the Admiral, to give him an account of our conference; and
there I was informed that the King was coming toward us, and that upon
receiving the news of the Duke's death he immediately set out, having
despatched several letters in his own and his officers' names to send
after him what forces could presently be assembled, with which he hoped
to reduce the provinces I have just mentioned to his obedience.
The King was overjoyed to see himself rid of all those whom he hated
and who were his chief enemies; on some of them he had been personally
revenged, as on the Constable of France, the Duke of Nemours, and several
others. His brother, the Duke of Guienne, was dead, and his majesty
came to the succession of the duchy. The whole house of Anjou was
extinct--René, King of Sicily, John and Nicholas, Dukes of Calabria, and
since them their cousin, the Count du Maine, afterward made count of
Provence. The Count d'Armagnac had been killed at Lestore, and the
King had got the estates and movables of all of them. But the house
of Burgundy, being greater and more powerful than the rest, having
maintained war with Charles VII, our master's father, for two-and-thirty
years together without any cessation, by the assistance of the English,
and having their dominions bordering upon the King's and their subjects
always inclinable to invade his kingdom, the King had reason to be more
than ordinarily pleased at the death of that Duke, and he triumphed more
in his ruin than in that of all the rest of his enemies, as he thought
that nobody, for the future, either of his own subjects or his neighbors,
would be able to oppose him or disturb the tranquillity of his reign. He
was at peace with England, and made it his chief business to continue so;
yet, though he was freed in this manner from all his apprehensions, God
did not permit him to take such courses in the management of his affairs
as were most proper to promote his own interests and designs.
And certainly, although God Almighty has shown, and does still show, that
his determination is to punish the family of Burgundy severely, not only
in the person of the Duke, but in its subjects and estates, yet I think
the King our master did not take right measures to gain his end. For, if
he had acted prudently, instead of pretending to conquer them, he should
rather have endeavored to annex all those large territories, to which he
had no just title, to the crown of France by some treaty of marriage;
or to have gained the hearts and affections of the people, and so have
brought them over to his interest, which he might, without any great
difficulty, have effected, considering how their late afflictions had
impoverished and dejected them. If he had acted after that manner, he
would not only have prevented their ruin and destruction, but extended
and strengthened his own kingdom, and established them all in a firm and
lasting peace. He might by this means have eased, his own country of
its intolerable grievances, and particularly of the marches and
counter-marches of his troops, which are commanded continually up and
down from one end of the kingdom to the other, sometimes upon very slight
occasions.
In the Duke of Burgundy's lifetime the King often talked with me about
this affair, and told me what he would do if he should outlive the Duke,
and his discourse at that time was very rational and wise; he told me
he would propose a match between his son and the Duke of Burgundy's
daughter, and if she would not consent to that, on the ground that the
Dauphin was too young, he would then endeavor to marry her to some young
prince of his kingdom, by which means he might keep her and her subjects
in amity, and obtain without war what he intended to lay claim to for
himself; and this was his resolution not more than a week before he heard
of the Duke of Burgundy's death; but the very day he received that news
his mind began to change, and this wise counsel was laid aside when the
Admiral and I were despatched into those provinces. However, the King
spoke little of what he intended to do--only to some few that were about
him he promised sundry of the Duke's lordships and possessions.
As the King was upon the road toward us, he received from all parts the
welcome news of the delivering up the castles of Han and Bohain, and that
the inhabitants of St. Quentin had secured that town for themselves, and
opened their gates to their neighbor, the Lord of Mouy. He was certain
of Peronne, which was commanded by Master William Bische, and, by the
overtures that we and several other persons had made him, he was in great
hopes that the Lord des Cordes would strike in with his interest. To
Ghent he sent his barber, Master Oliver, [1] born in a small village
not far off; and other agents he sent to other places, with great
expectations from all of them; and most of them promised him very fair,
but performed nothing. Upon the King's arrival near Peronne, I went to
wait on his majesty, and at the same time William Bische and others
brought him the surrender of the town of Péronne, with which he was
extremely pleased.
The King stayed there that day, and I dined with him, according to my
usual custom, for it was his humor to have seven or eight always with him
at table, and sometimes many more. After dinner he withdrew, and seemed
not to be at all pleased with the Admiral's little exploit and mine; he
told us he had sent his barber, Master Oliver, to Ghent, and he doubted
not but he would persuade that town to submit to him; and Robinet
Dodenfort to St. Omer, as he had great interest there; and these his
majesty extolled as fit persons to manage such affairs, to receive the
keys of great towns, and to put garrisons of his troops into them. He
also mentioned others whom he had employed in the same negotiation in
other places.
While the King was busy in subduing towns and places in the marches of
Picardy, his army was in Burgundy, under the command, apparently, of the
Prince of Orange, a native and subject of the county of Burgundy, but one
who had recently, for the second time, become an enemy of Duke Charles,
so that the King made use of him, because he was a powerful noble in both
the county and duchy of Burgundy, and was likewise well connected and
greatly beloved. But the Lord of Craon was the King's lieutenant, and had
the real charge of the army, and was the person in whom the King reposed
most confidence; for he was a man of great wisdom, and thoroughly devoted
to his master, though somewhat too fond of gain. This Lord of Craon, when
he drew near Burgundy, sent forward the Prince of Orange and others to
Dijon to use persuasion, and require the people to render obedience to
the King; and they managed the matter so adroitly, principally by means
of the Prince of Orange, that the city of Dijon and all the other towns
in the duchy of Burgundy, together with many in the county, gave their
allegiance to the King.
[Footnote 1: This personage will be familiar to all who have read
Sir Walter Scott's novel of _Quentin Durward_. Oliver le Mauvais was
_valet-de-chambre_ and chief barber to Louis XI; in October, 1474, he
received letters of nobility from that Prince, authorizing him to change
his name of Mauvais to that of Le Dain. On November 19, 1477, the King
conferred the estates of the deceased Count of Meulant on Oliver le Dain
and his heirs; and to this gift he added the Forest of Senart in October,
1482. On May 21, 1484, Oliver was hanged "for various great crimes,
offences, and malefactions."]
INQUISITION ESTABLISHED IN SPAIN
A.D. 1480
WILLIAM H. RULE JAMES BALMES
Prior to the twelfth century the church authorities had been content with
defining heresy, while the treatment of heretics was left to secular
magistrates. But the spread of heresy at the end of the twelfth century
caused the episcopal authorities to look for some occasion for enlarging
their prerogatives. In 1204 Pope Innocent III appointed a papal delegate
with authority to judge and punish misbelievers. From this germ sprung
the Holy Office, commonly known as the Inquisition.
This papal act met with some opposition from the bishops, upon whose
prerogatives it encroached; and it provoked rebellion among those against
whom it was directed, the Albigenses of Southern France, whose doctrines
were spreading into Italy. In 1208 Innocent began a crusade against them,
which was led by Arnold of Citeaux and Simon de Montfort, and proved a
bloody war of extermination, lasting several years.
Meanwhile the papacy gradually proceeded in the design of creating
a tribunal under its own direct control. Such a tribunal was soon
practically instituted. Its leading spirit was St. Dominic, founder of
the Dominican order of preaching friars, but the title of Inquisitor was
not yet adopted at the time of his death, in 1221. St. Dominic, however,
is with good reason regarded as the founder of the Inquisition.
After the death of St. Dominic the Inquisition gradually assumed a more
definite and avowed character, and its repressive hand, inflicting
terrible punishments upon accused heretics, was soon felt throughout
Southern Europe, and later in the Netherlands, the order of St. Dominic
at first furnishing its principal agents.
But later the Inquisition entered upon another stage, under Spanish
direction, through a specific organization, practically independent of
papal or royal control, though acting under the sanction of both church
and state. It became "the most formidable of irresponsible engines in the
annals of religious institutions." Two points of view--Protestant and
Catholic--are here presented of the Spanish history of the Holy Office.
WILLIAM H. RULE
"Better and happier luck for Spain"--I translate the words of
Mariana--"was the establishment in Castile, which took place about this
time, of a new and holy tribunal of severe and grave judges, for the
purpose of making inquest and chastising heretical pravity and apostasy,
judges other than the bishops, on whose charge and authority this office
was anciently incumbent. For this intent the Roman pontiffs gave them
authority, and order was given that the princes should help them with
their favor and arm. These judges were called 'inquisitors,' because of
the office which they exercised of hunting out and making inquest, a
custom now very general in Italy, France, Germany, and also in the
kingdom of Aragon. Castile, henceforth, would not suffer any nation to go
beyond her in the desire which she always had to punish such enormous and
wicked excesses. We find mention, before this, of some inquisitors who
discharged this function, but not in the manner and force of those who
followed them.
"The chief author and instrument of this salutary grant was the Cardinal
of Spain (Mendoza), who had seen that, in consequence of the great
liberty of past years, and from the mingling of Moors and Jews with
Christians in all sorts of conversation and trade, many things went out
of order in the kingdom. With that liberty it was impossible that some of
the Christians should not be infected. Many more, leaving the religion
which they had voluntarily embraced as converts from Judaism, again
apostatized and returned to their old superstition--an evil which
prevailed more in Seville than in any other part. In that city,
therefore, secret searches were first made, and they severely punished
those whom they found guilty. If their delinquency was considerable after
having kept them long time imprisoned, and after having tormented them,
they burned them. If it was light, they punished the offenders, with the
perpetual dishonor of their family. Of not a few they confiscated the
goods, and condemned them to imprisonment for life. On most of them they
put a _sambenito_, which is a sort of scapulary of yellow color, with a
red St. Andrew's cross, that they might go marked among their neighbors,
and bear a signal that should affright and scare by the greatness of the
punishment and of the disgrace; a plan which experience has shown to
be very salutary, although, at first, it seemed very grievous to the
natives."
Cardinal Mendoza might have been an instrument of establishing the new
tribunal in Spain, but no author was wanted for that work. Pope Gregory
IX, fit successor of Innocent III, had completed in Spain, as in the
county of Toulouse and kingdom of France, the scheme which his uncle
Innocent began. By a bull, dated May 26, 1232, he appointed Dominican
friars inquisitors in Aragon, and forthwith proceeded to confer the same
benefit on the kingdoms of Navarre, Castile, and Portugal; Granada being
in possession of the Moors. Ten years later, in a council at Tarragona,
the chief technicalities of the Spanish Inquisition were settled. At the
invitation of Peter, Archbishop of Tarragona, Raymund of Peñaforte, the
Pope's penitentiary, presided. The definitions of the council are notable
for the determination they evidence to conduct the affairs of the
tribunal with entire legal precision and formality. The "vocabulary" was
now settled, and one has only to turn to the _Acts_ of the Council of
Tarragona to find the exact meaning of "heretic, believer, suspected,
simple, vehement, most vehement, favorer, concealer, receiver,
receptacle, defender, abettor, relapsed."