Under his sons the importance of the chief castles was recognized as so
great that the struggle for their control was in the forefront of every
contest. When Richard made vast grants at his accession to his brother
John, he was careful to reserve the possession of certain castles, and
when John rose against the king's minister, Longchamp, in 1191, the
custody of castles was the chief point of dispute throughout their
negotiations, and Lincoln was besieged on the king's behalf, as were
Tickhill, Windsor and Marlborough subsequently, while the siege of
Nottingham had to be completed by Richard himself on his arrival. To
John, in turn, as king, the fall of Chateau Gaillard meant the loss of
Rouen and of Normandy with it, and when he endeavoured to repudiate the
newly-granted Great Charter, his first step was to prepare the royal
castles against attack and make them his centres of resistance. The
barons, who had begun their revolt by besieging that of Northampton, now
assailed that of Oxford as well and seized that of Rochester. The king
recovered Rochester after a severe struggle and captured Tonbridge, but
thenceforth there was a war of sieges between John with his mercenaries
and Louis of France with his Frenchmen and the barons, which was
specially notable for the great defence of Dover Castle by Hubert de
Burgh against Louis. On the final triumph of the royal cause, after
John's death, at the battle of Lincoln, the general pacification was
accompanied by a fresh issue of the Great Charter in the autumn of 1217,
in which the precedent of Stephen's reign was followed and a special
clause inserted that all "adulterine" castles, namely those which had
been constructed or rebuilt since the breaking out of war between John
and the barons, should be immediately destroyed. And special stress was
laid on this in the writs addressed to the sheriffs.
In 1223 Hubert de Burgh, as regent, demanded the surrender to the crown
of all royal castles not in official custody, and though he succeeded in
this, Falkes de Breaute, John's mercenary, burst into revolt next year,
and it cost a great national effort and a siege of nearly two months to
reduce Bedford Castle, which he had held. Towards the close of Henry's
reign castles again asserted, in the Baron's War, their importance. The
Provisions of Oxford included a list of the chief royal castles and of
their appointed castellans with the oath that they were to take; but the
alien favourites refused to make way for them till they were forcibly
ejected. When war broke out it was Rochester Castle that successfully
held Simon de Montfort at bay in 1264, and in Pevensey Castle that the
fugitives from the rout of Lewes were able to defy his power. Finally,
after his fall at Evesham, it was in Kenilworth Castle that the remnant
of his followers made their last stand, holding out nearly five months
against all the forces of the crown, till their provisions failed them
at the close of 1266.
Thus for two centuries after the Norman Conquest castles had proved of
primary consequence in English political struggles, revolts and warfare.
And, although, when the country was again torn by civil strife, their
military importance was of small account, the crown's historic jealousy
of private fortification was still seen in the need to obtain the king's
licence to "crenellate" (i.e. embattle) the country mansion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--G.T. Clark, _Medieval Military Architecture in England_
(2 vols.), includes a few French castles and is the standard work on
the subject, but inaccurate and superseded on some points by recent
research; Professor Oman's _Art of War in the Middle Ages_ is a wide
survey of the subject, but follows Clark in some of his errors;
Mackenzie, _The Castles of England_ (1897), valuable for
illustrations; Deville, _Histoire du Chateau-Gaillard_ (1829) and
_Chateau d'Argues_ (1839); Viollet-le-Duc's _Essay on the Military
Architecture of the Middle Ages_ was translated by M. Macdermott in
1860. More recent studies will be found in J.H. Round's _Geoffrey de
Mandeville_ (1891); "English Castles" (_Quarterly Review_, July 1894);
and "Castles of the Conquest" (_Archeologia_, lviii., 1902); St John
Hope's "English Castles of the 10th and 11th Centuries" (_Archaeol.
Journal_, lx., 1902); Mrs Armitage's "Early Norman Castles of England"
(_Eng. Hist. Review_, xix. 1904), and her papers in _Scot. Soc. Ant.
Proc._ xxxiv., and _The Antiquary_, July, August, 1906; G. Neilson's
"The Motes in Norman Scotland" (_Scottish Review_, lxiv., 1898); G.H.
Orpen, "Motes and Norman Castles in Ireland" (_Eng. Hist. Review_,
xxi., xxii., 1906-1907). (J. H. R.)
CASTLEBAR, a market town and the county town of Co. Mayo, Ireland, in
the west parliamentary division, on the river and near the lough of the
same name, on the Manulla and Westport branch of the Midland Great
Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3585. The county court
buildings and other public offices occupy a square, and there is a
pleasant mall shaded by fine trees. There are some breweries, and trade
in linens and agricultural produce. The castle, which gives its name to
the town, was a fortress of the De Burgh family; but the town itself was
founded in the reign of James I., and received a charter from him in
1613. In 1641 the castle was held for the parliament by Sir Henry
Bingham, but he was forced to surrender to Lord Mayo, and fell a victim,
with all his garrison, to the fury and treachery of the besiegers. The
massacre was afterwards avenged in 1653 by the execution of Sir Theobald
Burke (by that time Lord Mayo), who had been in command along with his
father at the siege. In 1798 the town was occupied for some weeks by
the French under General J.J. Humbert, who had defeated the English
under Luke Hutchison in a conflict which is jocularly styled the
"Castlebar Races." The town returned two members to the Irish parliament
until the Union. Four miles N.E. of Castlebar is Turlough, with a round
tower 70 ft. high and 57 ft. in circumference, and other remains.
CASTLECONNELL, a village of Co. Limerick, Ireland, on the left bank of
the Shannon, 8 m. N.E. of Limerick on the Great Southern & Western
railway. It possesses a spa which was once considerably frequented, but
is famous as a centre for the salmon fishing on the lower Shannon.
Castleconnell is so intimately connected with this sport that it has
given its name to a favourite pattern of fly-rod, in which a movable
splice takes the place of the usual metal joint. The beautiful rapids of
Doonas (avoided by a canal) are in the neighbourhood, and the
surrounding scenery is generally attractive. There are remains of a
castle from which the town took its name, which was the seat of the
kings of Thomond, and was blown up by General Ginkel at the time of the
siege of Limerick (1690).
CASTLE DONINGTON, a town in the Loughborough parliamentary division of
Leicestershire, England, 123-1/2 m. N.N.W. from London, on the Trent
Junction and Western branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 2514. It
lies on the flank of the hills overlooking the Trent and Soar valleys.
There are slight remains of the castle. The church of St Luke is a fine
building of Early English and later date. Donington Park, a neighbouring
mansion, was offered to refugees during the French Revolution in 1830,
and Charles X. availed himself of this retreat. Hosiery, silk and
baskets are manufactured. Castle Donington is 2-1/2 m. west of Kegworth
station on the Midland main line. Kegworth (pop. 2078), on the Soar, has
a hosiery and knitting industry.
CASTLE DOUGLAS, a burgh of barony and police burgh of
Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 3018. It is situated on
Carlingwark Loch, 19-1/2 m. S.W. of Dumfries by the Glasgow &
South-Western railway. Its auction marts for sheep and cattle sales are
the largest in the south-west of Scotland; at an autumn sale as many as
15,000 sheep and 1400 cattle are disposed of in one day. The leading
industries comprise the making of agricultural implements and mineral
waters, besides tanning. The Macmillan Free Church perpetuates the
memory of John Macmillan (d. 1753), the Cameronian, who helped to found
the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He had been chaplain to Murray of
Broughton, and afterwards became minister of Balmaghie, about 3-1/2 m.
N.W. of Castle Douglas. The town is the chief centre of business in East
Galloway, and it is also resorted to in midsummer for its beautiful
scenery and excellent fishing. Till 1765 it was only a village under the
name of Causewayhead, but the discovery of marl in the lake brought it
some prosperity, and it was purchased in 1792 by Sir William Douglas and
called after him. Since then its progress has been continuous.
Carlingwark Loch contains several islets, on one of which is a crannog,
or ancient lake dwelling.
CASTLEFORD, an urban district in the Osgoldcross parliamentary division
of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on the river Aire near its
junction with the Calder, 9 m. S.E. of Leeds, on the North-Eastern and
Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1901) 17,386. Large glass-bottle
and earthenware-jar works, chemical works, and neighbouring collieries
employ the inhabitants. Here was the Roman village or fort of _Lagecium_
or _Legeolium_; and though visible remains are wanting, a number of
relics have been discovered.
CASTLE-GUARD, an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty
of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain
baronies, and divided among their knight's fees. The greater barons
provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from
their knights. In both cases the obligation was commuted very early for
a fixed money payment, which, as "castle-guard rent" lasted on to modern
times.
See J.H. Round, "Castle-Guard," in _Archaeological Journal_, vol.
lix., and "Castle-ward and Coinage," in _The Commune of London._
(J. H. R.)
CASTLEMAINE, a town of Talbot county, Victoria, Australia, 78 m. by rail
N.N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 5704. The gold-mines here were among
the first discovered in the colony, and dredging for gold is carried on
in Barker's and Forrest creeks, at the junction of which the town
stands. Slate and flagstone are largely quarried in the district, which
also produces wine and much fruit, especially apples. Castlemaine has a
reputation as a health resort in cases of pulmonary complaints.
CASTLE RISING, a village of Norfolk, England, 4 m. by road N.E. of
King's Lynn. The Norman castle for which it is famous stands on slightly
elevated ground overlooking, to the west, the low marshy coast of the
Wash. Its site is enclosed by artificial ramparts of earth and a dyke
which is crossed by an ancient bridge. The keep is square and massive,
and fairly perfect, and it is not difficult to reconstruct the
arrangement of the rooms. In some parts, especially the entrance, the
Norman carving is very rich. The foundations of a small chapel with
apsidal eastern termination have been discovered outside the castle. The
village of Castle Rising is the decayed remnant of a town of no little
importance. Its church of St Laurence is late Norman, with much rich
ornamentation; it shows traces of considerable alterations in the Early
English period, but is an admirable example of the earlier style.
It is a matter of dispute whether Rising was or was not an early Saxon
settlement; in Domesday Book the manor is given as having belonged to
Archbishop Stigand, from whom it had passed to Odo of Bayeux, whose
estates were confiscated in 1088. Granted to William de Albini, whose
son built Rising Castle, it passed first to Robert de Montalt, and then
by sale to Isabel, queen of England, in 1332, remaining in the
possession of the crown until Henry VIII. exchanged it for other lands
with the duke of Norfolk. In 1269 an inquisition found that the lord had
the return of all writs. In 1275 Robert de Montalt died seised of the
manor and vill with the assize of bread and ale. An inquisition of 1379,
although it makes no mention of the borough, states that the lord has
the rents of assizes, and perquisites of the courts with view of
frank-pledge. A mayor is first mentioned in 1343, and a borough existed
in the 15th century. A survey of 1589-1590 declared that Castle Rising
was an ancient borough by prescription according to the grant made to
Hugh de Albini by Henry III. In 1589-1590 the recorder was chosen by the
lord of the manor. The mayor, the only member of the corporation, whose
sole duty was the holding of the assize of bread and ale, was chosen by
the burgesses and presented at the court leet for confirmation. Castle
Rising became a parliamentary borough in 1558, but was disfranchised in
1832 and the corporation abolished in 1835, although a mayor was elected
for special purposes until 1883. Having no manufactures, the trade of
the town depended entirely on its fairs and markets; but these have been
long obsolete.
CASTLETON, a village in the High Peak parliamentary division of
Derbyshire, England, 17 m. W.S.W. of Sheffield, and 2 m. from Hope
station on a branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 547. Lying
itself at an elevation of about 600 ft., it is surrounded on the north,
west and south by hills from 1400 to 1700 ft. in height, rising sharply,
and in parts precipitously. The village is celebrated for its situation
in the midst of the wild Peak country, for the caves and mines in the
neighbourhood, and for the Castle of the Peak, the ruins of which are
strongly placed on a cliff immediately above the village. The Peak
Cavern or Devil's Hole, penetrating this cliff, is the most magnificent
in Derbyshire. For many generations the entrance to this cave has served
as a workshop, held free of rent, to families employed in rope and twine
making. Speedwell Cavern is not far distant, at the entrance to the fine
pass of Winnats, by which Castleton and the Vale of Hope are approached
from the west. The beauties of this cavern, in which occurs the
so-called bottomless pit, are in part readily accessible by boat, but
the approach to the inner or Cliff cavern is so difficult that it has
rarely been explored. Among several other caves is that known as the
Blue John Mine, from the decorative fluorspar called "Blue John" which
is obtained here. The church of St Edmund, Castleton, retains a fine
Norman chancel arch, and the vestry contains a valuable library. At
Brough near Castleton was a Roman fort, established to hold in check the
hillmen of the Peak. It was connected by roads with Buxton, Manchester
and Rotherham. The Castle of the Peak, or Peveril Castle, is famous
through Sir Walter Scott's novel _Peveril of the Peak_. Early
earthworks, which, extending from below the castle in a semicircle,
enclosed the town, can still in great part be traced. Before the
Conquest the site was held by Gernebern and Hundinc, and was granted by
the Conqueror to William Peverell, by whom the castle was built. On the
forfeiture of William Peverell, grandson of the first holder, it was
granted by Henry II. to Prince John who, in 1204, made Hugh Nevill
governor of the castle. In 1216 William Ferrers, earl of Derby, took it
from the rebellious barons, and was made governor by Henry III., who in
1223 granted a charter for a weekly market at the town. In 1328 the
castle was given to John of Gaunt on his marriage with Blanche of
Lancaster, and thus became parcel of the duchy of Lancaster. The castle
has often been used as a prison, and from its position was almost
impregnable.
CASTLETOWN (Manx, _Bully Cashtel_), a town of the Isle of Man, 10 m.
S.W. of Douglas, by the Isle of Man railway. Pop. (1901) 1975. It is
picturesquely situated on both sides of a small harbour formed by the
outflow of the Silver Burn into Castletown Bay. It was the legal capital
of the island until 1862. In the centre of the town stands Castle
Rushen, which is said to owe its foundation to the Danish chief,
Guthred, in 947-960, though the existing building, which is remarkably
well preserved, probably dates from the 14th century. Until the 18th
century it was the residence of the lords of Man, and until 1891 served
as a prison. The massive keep is square, and is surrounded by an outer
wall, with towers and a moat. The council chamber and court-house were
built in 1644. In the neighbourhood of the castle is the old House of
Keys, where the members of the Manx parliament held their sessions until
the removal of the seat of government to Douglas. A lofty Doric column
commemorates Cornelius Smelt, lieutenant-governor of the island (d.
1832), near which there is a remarkable sun-dial with thirteen faces,
dating from 1720. King William's College, situated a mile to the
north-east of the town, was opened in 1833; but a complete restoration
was rendered necessary by fire in 1844, and it was subsequently
enlarged. It is the chief educational establishment in the island. At
Hango Hill near the town William Christian, receiver-general, who had
surrendered the castle, and with it the island, to the parliamentary
forces in 1651, was executed in 1663 at the instance of the countess of
Derby, who had undertaken to defend it for the king. A small shipping
trade is maintained.
CASTOR and POLLUX (Gr. [Greek: Poludeukes]), in Greek and Roman
mythology, the twin sons of Leda, and brothers of Helen and
Clytaemnestra. They were also known under the name of Dioscuri ([Greek:
Dioskoroi], later [Greek: Dioskouroi], children of Zeus), for, according
to later tradition, they were the children of Zeus and Leda, whose love
the god had won under the form of a swan. In some versions Leda is
represented as having brought forth two eggs, from one of which were
born Castor and Pollux, from the other Helen. In another account, Zeus
is the father of Pollux and Helen, Tyndareus (king of Sparta) of Castor
and Clytaemnestra. In Homer, Castor, Pollux and Clytaemnestra are said
to be the children of Tyndareus and Leda, Helen the daughter of Leda by
Zeus. The Dioscuri were specially reverenced among people of Dorian
race, and were said to have reigned at Sparta, where also they were
buried. They were also worshipped, especially in Athens, as lords and
protectors ([Greek: anakes, anaktes]). Sailors in a storm prayed to them
(Horace, _Odes_, i. 3) and sacrificed a white lamb, whereupon they were
wont to appear in the form of fire at the masthead (probably referring
to the phenomenon of St Elmo's fire), and the storm ceased. Later, they
were confounded with the Samothracian Cabeiri. In battle they appeared
riding on white horses and gave victory to the side they favoured. They
were the patrons of hospitality, and founded the sacred festival called
Theoxenia. They presided over public games, Castor especially as the
horse-tamer, Pollux as the boxer; but both are represented as riding on
horseback or driving in a chariot. In Sparta their ancient symbol was
two parallel beams [Greek: dokana] connected by cross-bars, which the
Spartans took with them into the field (Plutarch, _De Fraterno Amore_,
1; Herodotus v. 75); later, they were represented by two amphorae with
snakes twined round them. Their most important exploits were the
invasion of Attica, to rescue their sister Helen from Theseus; their
share in the hunting of the Calydonian boar (see MELEAGER) and the
Argonautic expedition, and their battle with the sons of Aphareus,
brought about by a quarrel in regard to some cattle, in which Castor,
the mortal (as the son of Tyndareus), fell by the hand of Idas. Pollux,
finding him dead after the battle, implored Zeus to be allowed to die
with him; this being impossible by reason of his immortality, Pollux was
permitted to spend alternately one day among the gods, the other in
Hades with his brother. According to another fable, the god marked his
approval of their love by placing them together in the sky, as the Twins
or the morning and evening star (Hyginus, _Poet. Astronom._ ii. 22).
Like the Asvins of the _Veda_, the bringers of light in the morning sky,
with whom they have been identified, the Dioscuri are represented as
youthful horsemen, naked or wearing only a light chlamys. Their
characteristic attribute is a pointed egg-shaped cap, surmounted by a
star.
Though their worship was perhaps most carefully observed among people of
Dorian origin, Castor and Pollux were held in no small veneration at
Rome. It was the popular belief in that city from an early period that
the battle of Lake Regillus had been decided by their interposition
(Dion. Halic. vi. 13). They had fought, it was said, armed and mounted,
at the head of the legions of the commonwealth, and had afterwards
carried the news of the victory with incredible speed to the city. The
well in the Forum at which they alighted was pointed out, and near it
rose their ancient temple, in which the senate often held its sittings.
On the 15th of July, the supposed anniversary of the battle, a great
festival with sumptuous sacrifices was celebrated in their honour, and a
solemn parade of the Roman knights (_transvectio equitum_), who looked
upon the Dioscuri as their patrons, took place. (Apollodorus iii. 10. 7,
11. 2; Homer, _Odyssey_, xi. 299; Hyginus, _Fab._ 77. 155; Pindar,
_Nem._ x. 60, 80 and schol.; Diod. Sic. iv. 43; Plutarch, _Theseus_, 32,
33; Theocritus, _Idyll_, xxii.)
See Maurice Albert, _Le Culte de Castor et Pollux en Italie_ (1883),
with special descriptions and representations in art, on coins, vases
and statues; S. Eitrem, "Die gottlichen Zwillinge bei den Griechen"
(treating of the divine beings mentioned in pairs in Greek mythology),
in _Videnskabs-Selskab Skrifter_ (Christiania, 1902); W.R. Paton, _De
Cultu Dioscurorum apud Graecos_ (Bonn, 1894); L. Myriantheus, _Acvins
oder arische Dioskuren_ (Munich, 1876); J.R. Harris, _The Dioscuri in
the Christian Legends_ (1903), and _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_
(1906); W. Helbig, "Die Castores als Schutzgotter des romischen
Equitatus," in _Hermes_, xl. (1905); C. Jaisle, _Die Dioskuren als
Retter zur See bei Griechen und Romern, und ihr Fortleben in
christlichen Legenden_ (Tubingen, 1907); L. Preller, _Griechische und
romische Mythologie_; articles by A. Furtwangler in Roscher's _Lexikon
der Mythologie_, and by M. Albert in Daremberg and Saglio's
_Dictionnaire des antiquites._
CASTOR OIL, the fixed oil obtained from the seeds of the castor oil
plant or Palma Christi, _Ricinus communis_, belonging to the natural
order Euphorbiaceae. The botanical name is from Lat. _ricinus_, a tick,
from the form and markings of the seed. The plant is a native of
tropical Africa, but it has been introduced, and is now cultivated in
most tropical and in the warmer temperate countries. In size it varies
from a shrubby plant to a tree of from 30 to 40 ft. in height according
to the climate in which it grows, being arborescent in tropical
latitudes. On account of its very large beautiful palmate-peltate
leaves, which sometimes measure as much as 2 ft. in diameter, it is
cultivated as an ornamental plant. In the south of England, with the
habit of an annual, it ripens its seeds in favourable seasons; and it
has been known to come to maturity as far north as Christiania in
Norway. Plants are readily grown from seed, which should be sown singly
in small pots and placed in heat early in March. The young plants are
kept under glass till early in June when they are hardened and put out.
The fruit consists of a three-celled capsule, covered externally with
soft yielding prickles, and each cell develops a single seed. The seeds
of the different cultivated varieties, of which there are a great
number, differ much in size and in external markings; but average seeds
are of an oval laterally compressed form, with their longest diameter
about four lines. They have a shining, marble-grey and brown, thick,
leathery outer coat, within which is a thin dark-coloured brittle coat.
A large distinct leafy embryo lies in the middle of a dense, oily tissue
(endosperm). The seeds contain a toxic substance, which makes them
actively poisonous; so much so that three have been known to kill an
adult.
The oil is obtained from the seeds by two principal methods--expression
and decoction--the latter process being largely used in India, where the
oil, on account of its cheapness and abundance is extensively employed
for illuminating as well as for other domestic and medicinal purposes.
The oil exported from Calcutta to Europe is prepared by shelling and
crushing the seeds between rollers. The crushed mass is then placed in
hempen cloths and pressed in a screw or hydraulic press. The oil which
exudes is mixed with water and heated till the water boils, and the
mucilaginous matter in the oil separates as a scum. It is next strained,
then bleached in the sunlight, and stored for exportation. A
considerable quantity of castor oil of an excellent quality is also made
in Italy; and in California the manufacture is conducted on an extensive
scale. The following is an outline of the process adopted in a
Californian factory. The seeds are submitted to a dry heat in a furnace
for an hour or thereby, by which they are softened and prepared to part
easily with their oil. They are then pressed in a large powerful
screw-press, and the oily matter which flows out is caught, mixed with
an equal proportion of water, and boiled to purify it from mucilaginous
and albuminous matter. After boiling about an hour, it is allowed to
cool, the water is drawn off, and the oil is transferred to zinc tanks
or clarifiers capable of holding from 60 to 100 gallons. In these it
stands about eight hours, bleaching in the sun, after which it is ready
for storing. By this method 100 lb. of good seeds yield about 5 gallons
of pure oil.
Castor oil is a viscid liquid, almost colourless when pure, possessing
only a slight odour, and a mild yet highly nauseous and disagreeable
taste. Its specific gravity is .96, a little less than that of water,
and it dissolves freely in alcohol, ether and glacial acetic acid. It
contains palmitic and several other fatty acids, among which there is
one--ricinoleic acid--peculiar to itself. This occurs in combination
with glycerin, constituting the greater part of the bulk of the oil.
The active principle to which the oil owes its purgative properties has
not been isolated. It is, indeed, probable that it is formed in the
intestine, as a result of some decomposition as yet unknown. The dose is
from a drachm to an ounce. The pharmacopoeial mixture is best avoided,
being almost uniquely nauseous. By far the best way to administer the
oil is in capsules. It acts in about five hours, affecting the entire
length of the bowel, but not increasing the flow of bile except in very
large doses. The mode of its action is unknown. The oil will purge when
rubbed into the skin or injected _per rectum_. It is an invaluable drug
in temporary constipation and whenever a mild action is essential, as in
pregnancy. It is extremely useful for children and the aged, but must
not be employed in cases of chronic constipation, which it only
aggravates, whilst relieving the symptoms.
CASTREN, MATTHIAS ALEXANDER (1813-1853), Finnish ethnologist and
philologist, was born at Tervola, in the parish of Kemi in Finland, on
the 20th of November (December 2, 1813). His father, Christian Castren,
parish minister at Rovaniemi, died in 1825; and Matthias passed under
the protection of his uncle, Mathias Castren, the kindly and learned
incumbent of Kemi. At the age of twelve he was sent to school at
Uleaborg, and there he helped to maintain himself by teaching the
younger children. On his removal to the Alexander University at
Helsingfors in 1830, he first devoted himself to Greek and Hebrew with
the intention of entering the church; but his interest was soon excited
by the language of his native country, and he even began before his
course was completed to lay the foundations of a work on Finnish
mythology. The necessity of personal explorations among the still
unwritten languages of cognate tribes soon made itself evident; and in
1838 he joined a medical fellow-student, Dr. Ehrstrom, in a journey
through Lapland. In the following year he travelled in Russian Karelia
at the expense of the Literary Society of Finland; and in 1841 he
undertook, in company with Dr Elias Lonnrot, the great Finnish
philologist, a third journey, which ultimately extended beyond the Ural
as far as Obdorsk, and occupied a period of three years. Before starting
on this last expedition he had published a translation into Swedish of
the Finnish epic of _Kalevala_; and on his return he gave to the world
his _Elementa grammatices Syrjaenae_ and _Elementa grammatices
Tscheremissae_, 1844. No sooner had he recovered from the illness which
his last journey had occasioned than he set out, under the auspices of
the Academy of St Petersburg and the Helsingfors University, on an
exploration of the whole government of Siberia, which resulted in a vast
addition to previous knowledge, but seriously affected the health of the
adventurous investigator. The first-fruits of his collections were
published at St Petersburg in 1849 in the form of a _Versuch einer
ostjakischen Sprachlehre_. In 1850 he published a treatise _De affixis
personalibus linguarum Altaicarum_, and was appointed professor at
Helsingfors of the new chair of Finnish language and literature. The
following year saw him raised to the rank of chancellor of the
university; and he was busily engaged in what he regarded as his
principal work, a Samoyedic grammar, when he died on the 7th of May
1853.
Five volumes of his collected works appeared from 1852 to 1858,
containing respectively--(1) _Reseminnen fran aren_ 1838-1844; (2)
_Reseberaitelser och bref aren_ 1845-1849; (3) _Forelasningar i Finsk
mythologi_; (4) _Ethnologiska forelasningar ofver Altaiska folken_;
and (5) _Smarre afhandlingar och akademiska dissertationer_. A German
translation was published by Anton Schiefner, who was also entrusted
by the St Petersburg Academy with the editing of his manuscripts which
had been left to the Helsingfors University and which were
subsequently published.
CASTRENSIS, PAULUS, an Italian jurist of the 14th century. He studied
under Baldus at Perugia, and was a fellow-pupil with Cardinal Zabarella.
He was admitted to the degree of doctor of civil law in the university
of Avignon, but it is uncertain when he first undertook the duties of a
professor. A tradition, which has been handed down by Panzirolus,
represents him as having taught law for a period of fifty-seven years.
He was professor at Vienna in 1390, at Avignon in 1394, and at Padua in
1429; and, at different periods, at Florence, at Bologna and at Perugia.
He was for some time the vicar-general of Cardinal Zabarella at
Florence, and his eminence as a teacher of canon law may be inferred
from the language of one of his pupils, who styles him "famosissimus
juris utriusque monarca." His most complete treatise is his readings on
the _Digest_, and it appears from a passage in his readings on the
_Digestum Vetus_ that he delivered them at a time when he had been
actively engaged for forty-five years as a teacher of civil law. His
death is generally assigned to 1436, but it appears from an entry in a
MS. of the _Digestum Vetus_, which is extant at Munich, made by the hand
of one of his pupils who styles him "praeceptor meus," that he died on
the 20th of July 1441.
CASTRES, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in
the department of Tarn, 29 m. S.S.E. of Albi on a branch line of the
Southern railway. Pop. (1906) town, 19,864; commune, 28,272. Castres,
the busiest and most populous town of its department, is intersected
from north to south by the Agout; the river is fringed by old houses the
upper stories of which project over its waters. Wide boulevards traverse
the west of the town, which is also rendered attractive by numerous
fountains fed by a fine aqueduct hewn in the rock. The church of St
Benoit, once a cathedral, and the most important of the churches of
Castres, dates only from the 17th and 18th centuries. The hotel de
ville, which contains a museum and the municipal library, occupies the
former bishop's palace, designed by Jules Mansart in the 17th century;
the Romanesque tower beside it is the only survival of an old
Benedictine abbey. The town possesses some old mansions of which the
hotel de Nayrac, of the Renaissance, is of most interest. Castres has a
sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of
trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce, a branch of the bank of France
and two hospitals. There are also communal colleges for boys and girls,
a school of artillery and school of draughtsmanship. The industrial
establishments include manufactories of earthenware and porcelain and
metal-foundries, and tanning, leather-dressing, turnery, the making of
wooden shoes and furniture, the weaving of woollen and other fabrics,
dyeing, and the manufacture of machinery, paper and parchment are
carried on.
Castres grew up round a Benedictine abbey, which is believed to have
been founded in the 7th century. It was a place of considerable
importance as early as the 12th century, and ranked as the second town
of the Albigenses. During the Albigensian crusade it surrendered of its
own accord to Simon de Montfort; and in 1356 it was raised to a
countship by King John of France. On the confiscation of the possessions
of the D'Armagnac family, to which it had passed, it was bestowed by
Louis XI. on Boffilo del Giudice, but the appointment led to so much
disagreement that the countship was united to the crown by Francis I. in
1519. In the wars of the latter part of the 16th century the inhabitants
sided with the Protestant party, fortified the town, and established an
independent republic. They were brought to terms, however, by Louis
XIII., and forced to dismantle their fortifications; and the town was
made the seat of the _chambre de l'edit_, or chamber for the
investigation of the affairs of the Protestants, afterwards transferred
to Castelnaudary (in 1679). The bishopric of Castres, which had been
established by Pope John XXII. in 1317, was abolished at the Revolution.
CASTRO, INEZ DE (d. 1355), mistress, and perhaps wife, of Peter I.
(Pedro), king of Portugal, called _Collo de Garza_, i.e. "Heron's Neck,"
was born in Spanish Galicia, in the earlier years of the 14th century.
Tradition asserts that her father, Don Pedro Fernandez de Castro, and
her mother, Dona Aldonca Soares de Villadares, a noble Portuguese lady,
were unmarried, and that Inez and her two brothers were consequently of
bastard birth. Educated at the semi-Oriental provincial court of Juan
Manuel, duke of Penafiel, Inez grew up side by side with Costanca, the
duke's daughter by a scion of the royal house of Aragon, and her own
cousin. After refusing several crowned heads in marriage, Costanca was
at last persuaded to accept the hand of the infante Dom Pedro, son of
Alphonso the Proud, king of Portugal. In 1341 the two girls left
Penafiel; Costanca's marriage was celebrated in the same year, and the
young infanta and her cousin went to reside at Lisbon, or at Coimbra,
where Dom Pedro conceived that luckless and furious passion for Inez
which has immortalized them.
The morality of the age was lax, and more especially so in Spain and
Portugal, where the looseness of the marriage tie and the example of the
Moors encouraged polygamy. Pedro's connexion _par amours_ with Inez
would of itself have aroused no opposition. He might even have married
her, after the death of his wife in childbirth in 1345. According to his
own assurance he did marry her in 1354. But by that time the rising
power of the Castro family had created the most brutal hatred among
their rivals, both in Spain and Portugal. Alvaro Gonzales, Pedro Coelho,
and Diogo Lopes Pacheco persuaded the king, Alphonso, that his throne
was in danger from an alliance between his son and the Castros, and with
all the brutality of the age they urged the king to remove the danger by
murdering the poor woman. The old king listened, refused, wavered and
ended by yielding. He went in secret to the palace at Coimbra, where
Inez and the infante resided, accompanied by his three familiars, and by
others who agreed with them. The beauty and tears of Inez disarmed his
resolution, and he turned to leave her; but the gentlemen about him had
gone too far to recede. Inez was stabbed to death and was buried
immediately in the church of Santa Clara.
The infante raised at once the flag of revolt against his father, and
was only appeased by the concession of a large share in the government.
The three murderers of Inez were sent out of the kingdom by Alphonso,
who knew his son too well not to be aware that the vengeance would be
tremendous as the crime. They took refuge in Castile. In 1357, however,
Alphonso died, and the infante was crowned king of Portugal. Peter the
Cruel, his nephew, reigned over Castile; and the murderers were given up
as soon as required. Diogo Lopes escaped through the gratitude of a
beggar to whom he had formerly done a kindness; but Coelho and Gonzales
were executed, with horrible tortures, in the very presence of the king.
The story of the exhumation and coronation of the corpse of Inez has
often been told. It is said that to the dead body, crowned and robed in
royal raiment, and enthroned beside the king, the assembled nobles of
Portugal paid homage as to their queen, swearing fealty on the withered
hand of the corpse. The gravest doubts, however, exist as to the
authenticity of this story; Fernao Lopes, the Portuguese Froissart, who
is the great authority for the details of the death of Inez, with some
of the actors in which he was acquainted, says nothing of the ghastly
ceremony, though he tells at length the tale of the funeral honours that
the king bestowed upon his wife. Inez was buried at Alcobaca with
extraordinary magnificence, in a tomb of white marble, surmounted by her
crowned statue; and near her sepulchre Pedro caused his own to be
placed. The monument, after repeatedly resisting the violence of
curiosity, was broken into in 1810 by the French soldiery; the statue
was mutilated, and the yellow hair was cut from the broken skeleton, to
be preserved in reliquaries and blown away by the wind. The children of
Inez shared her habit of misfortune. From her brother, however, Alvaro
Perez de Castro, the reigning house of Portugal directly descends.
See Fernao Lopes, _Chronica del Rey Dom Pedro_ (1735); Camoens, _Os
Lusiadas_; Antonio Ferreira's _Ines de Castro_,--the first regular
tragedy of the Renaissance after the _Sofonisba_ of Trissino; Luis
Velez de Guevara, _Reinar despues de morir_, an admirable play; and
Ferdinand Denis, _Chroniques chevaleresques de l'Espagne et du
Portugal_.
CASTRO, JOAO DE (1500-1548), called by Camoens _Castro Forte_, fourth
viceroy of the Portuguese Indies, was the son of Alvaro de Castro, civil
governor of Lisbon. A younger son, and destined therefore for the
church, he became at an early age a brilliant humanist, and studied
mathematics under Pedro Nunez, in company with the infante Dom Luis, son
of Emanuel the First, with whom he contracted a life-long friendship. At
eighteen he went to Tangier, where he was dubbed knight by Duarte de
Menezes the governor, and there he remained several years. In 1535 he
accompanied Dom Luis to the siege of Tunis, where he had the honour of
refusing knighthood and reward at the hands of the great emperor Charles
V. Returning to Lisbon, he received from the king the small
commandership of Sao Pablo de Salvaterra in 1538. He was exceedingly
poor, but his wife Lenor de Coutinho, a noble Portuguese lady, admired
and appreciated her husband sufficiently to make light of their poverty.
Soon after this he left for the Indies in company with his uncle Garcia
de Noronha, and on his arrival at Goa enlisted among the _aventureiros_,
"the bravest of the brave," told off for the relief of Diu. In 1540 he
served on an expedition under Estevao da Gama, by whom his son, Alvaro
de Castro, a child of thirteen, was knighted, out of compliment to him.
Returning to Portugal, Joao de Castro was named commander of a fleet, in
1543, to clear the European seas of pirates; and in 1545 he was sent,
with six sail, to the Indies, in the room of Martin de Sousa, who had
been dismissed the viceroyalty. The next three years were the hardest
and most brilliant, as they were the last, of his life--years of battle
and struggle, of glory and sorrow, of suffering and triumph. Valiantly
seconded by his sons (one of whom, Fernao, was killed before Diu) and by
Joao Mascarenhas, Joao de Castro achieved such popularity by the
overthrow of Mahmud, king of Gujarat, by the relief of Diu, and by the
defeat of the great army of the Adil Khan, that he could contract a very
large loan with the Goa merchants on the simple security of his
moustache. These great deeds were followed by the capture of Broach, by
the complete subjugation of Malacca, and by the passage of Antonio Moniz
into Ceylon; and in 1547 the great captain was appointed viceroy by Joao
III., who had at last accepted him without mistrust. He did not live
long to fill this charge, expiring in the arms of his friend, St Francis
Xavier, on the 6th of June 1548. He was buried at Goa, but his remains
were afterwards exhumed and conveyed to Portugal, to be reinterred under
a splendid monument in the convent of Bemfica.
See Jacinto Freire de Andrade, _Vida de D. Joao de Castro_ (Lisbon,
1651), English translation by Sir Peter Wyche (1664); Diogo de Couto,
_Decadas da Asia_, vi. The _Roteiros_ or logbooks of Castro's voyages
in the East (Lisbon, 1833, 1843 and 1872) are of great interest.
CASTROGIOVANNI (Arab. _Kasr-Yani_, a corruption of _Castrum Ennae_), a
town and episcopal see of the province of Caltanisetta, Sicily, 95 m. by
rail S.E. of Palermo, and 56 m. W. of Catania, situated 2605 ft. above
sea-level, almost in the centre of the island, and commanding a
magnificent view of the interior. Pop. (1901) 25,826. Enna was one of
the cities of the Sicels, and the statement of Stephanus Byzantinus that
it was colonized by Syracuse in 664 B.C. is improbable. The question is
discussed by E. Pais, _Atakta_ (Pisa, 1891), 63. It does not appear in
history before the time of Dionysius I. of Syracuse, who, after
unsuccessful attempts, finally acquired possession of it by treachery
about 397 B.C. Its natural position rendered it a fortress of great
importance, and it is frequently mentioned in subsequent history. In
134-132 it was the headquarters of the slave revolt, and was only
reduced by treachery. Cicero speaks of it as a place of some importance,
but in imperial times it seems to have been of little account. In A.D.
837 the Saracens attempted to take it, but without success; and it was
again only by treachery that they were able to take it in 859. In 1087
it fell into the hands of the Normans; and the existing remains of
fortifications are entirely medieval. There are indeed no remains of
earlier days. The cathedral, founded in 1307, is of some interest. There
are no remains of the famous temple of Demeter, from which Verres, as
Cicero tells us, removed the bronze statue of the goddess. The lake of
Pergus, where Persephone, according to one of the myths, was carried off
by Hades, lies 4 m. to the south. The myth itself must have had some
local origin, but has had so much Greek detail grafted upon it that the
very names of the earlier Sicel deities have been displaced.
CASTRO URDIALES, a seaport of northern Spain, in the province of
Santander, situated on the bay of Biscay and at the head of a branch
railway connected with the Bilbao-Santander line. Pop. (1870) about
3500; (1900) 14,191. Castro Urdiales is a modern town, although its
castle and parish church date from the middle ages. It was destroyed by
the French in 1813, but speedily rebuilt and fortified. Its rapid rise
in population and prosperity dates from the increased development of
iron-mining and railway communication which took place after 1879. Its
chief industries are iron-mining, fishing, and the preservation of fish,
especially sardines, in oil. Between 1894 and 1904 the exports of iron
ore rose from 277,200 tons to 516,574 tons.
CASTRO Y BELLVIS, GUILLEN DE (1569-1631), Spanish dramatist, was a
Valencian by birth, and early enjoyed a reputation as a man of letters.
In 1591 he became a member of a local literary academy called the
_Nocturnos_. At one time a captain of the coast-guard, at another the
protege of Benavente, viceroy of Naples, who appointed him governor of
Scigliano, patronized by Osuna and Olivares, Castro was nominated a
knight of the order of Santiago in 1623. He settled at Madrid in 1626,
and died there on the 28th of July 1631 in such poverty that his funeral
expenses were defrayed by charity. He probably made the acquaintance of
Lope de Vega at the festivals (1620-1622) held to commemorate the
beatification and canonization of St Isidore, the patron saint of
Madrid. On the latter occasion Castro's _octavas_ were awarded the first
prize. Lope de Vega dedicated to him a celebrated play entitled _Las
Almenas de Toro_ (1619), and when Castro's _Comedias_ were published in
1618-1621 he dedicated the first volume to Lope de Vega's daughter. The
drama that has made Castro's reputation is _Las Mocedades del Cid_
(1599?), to the first part of which Corneille was largely indebted for
the materials of his tragedy. The two parts of this play, like all those
by Castro, have the genuine ring of the old _romances_; and, from their
intense nationality, no less than for their primitive poetry and flowing
versification, were among the most popular pieces of their day. Castro's
_Fuerza de la costumbre_ is the source of _Love's Care_, a play ascribed
to Fletcher. He is also the reputed author of _El Prodigio de los
Montes_, from which Calderon derived _El Magico prodigioso_.
_Las Mocedades del Cid_ (Toulouse, 1890) and _Ingratitud de amor_
(Philadelphia, 1899) have been well edited by E. Merimee and H.A.
Rennert respectively.
CASTRUCCIO CASTRACANI DEGLI ANTELMINELLI (1281-1328), duke of Lucca, was
by birth a Lucchese, and by descent and training a Ghibelline. Being
exiled at an early age with his parents and others of their faction by
the Guelphs, then in the ascendant, and orphaned at nineteen, he served
as a _condottiere_ under Philip IV. of France in Flanders, later with
the Visconti in Lombardy, and in 1313 under the Ghibelline chief,
Uguccione della Faggiuola, lord of Pisa, in central Italy. He assisted
Uguccione in many enterprises, including the capture of Lucca (1314) and
the victory over the Florentines at Montecatini (1315). An insurrection
of the Lucchese having led to the expulsion of Uguccione and his party,
Castruccio regained his freedom and his position, and the Ghibelline
triumph was presently assured. Elected lord of Lucca in 1316, he warred
incessantly against the Florentines, and was at first the faithful
adviser and stanch supporter of Frederick of Austria, who made him
imperial vicar of Lucca in 1320. After the battle of Muhlbach he went
over to the emperor Louis the Bavarian, whom he served for many years.
In 1325 he defeated the Florentines at Altopascio, and was appointed by
the emperor duke of Lucca, Pistoja, Volterra and Luni, and two years
later he captured Pisa, of which he was made imperial vicar. But,
subsequently, his relations with Louis seem to have grown less friendly
and he was afterwards excommunicated by the papal legate in the
interests of the Guelphs. At his death in 1328 the fortunes of his young
children were wrecked in the Guelphic triumph.
Niccolo Machiavelli's _Life of Castruccio_ is a mere romance; it was
translated into French, with notes, by Dreux de Radier in 1753. See
Niccolo Negrini, _Vita di Castruccio_ (Modena, 1496); Winkler's
_Castruccio, Herzog von Lucca_ (Berlin, 1897); also Gino Capponi's
_Storia di Firenze_, and G. Sforza, _Castruccio Castracani degli
Antelminelli in Lunigiana_ (Modena, 1891); S. de Sismondi, _Histoire
des republiques italiennes_ (Brussels, 1838).
CASTRUM MINERVAE (mod. _Castro_), an ancient town of the Sallentini in
Calabria, 10 m. south of Hydruntum, with an ancient temple of Minerva,
said to have been founded by Idomeneus, who formed the tribe of the
Sallentini from a mixture of Cretans, Illyrians and Italian Locrians. It
is also said to have been the place where Aeneas first landed in Italy,
the port of which he named _Portus Veneris._ The temple had lost some of
its importance in Strabo's day.
CASUARINA, a genus of trees containing about 30 species, chiefly
Australian, but a few Indo-Malayan. The long whip-like green branches
are longitudinally grooved, and bear at the nodes whorls of small
scale-leaves, the shoots resembling those of _Equisetum_ (horse-tail).
The flowers are unisexual; the staminate are borne in spikes, each
flower consisting of a central stamen which is surrounded by two
scale-like perianth-leaves. The pistillate are borne in dense spherical
heads; each flower stands in the axil of a bract and consists of two
united carpels flanked by a pair of bracteoles; the long styles hang out
beyond the bracts, and the one-chambered ovary contains two ovules. In
the fruit the bracteoles form two woody valves between which is a nut;
the aggregate of fruits resemble small cones. Pollen is transferred by
the wind to the long styles. The pollen-tube does not penetrate the
ovule through the micropyle but enters at the opposite end--the chalaza.
This anomaly was discovered by Dr M. Treub (see _Annal. Jardin Botan.
Buitenzorg_, x. 1891), and is associated with a peculiar development of
the ovule, and an increased number and peculiar form of the embryo-sacs
(nacrospores). Treub proposed to separate _Casuarina_ as a distinct
group of Angiosperms, and suggested the following arrangement:--
/ \ Dicotyledons.
Angiospermae < Porogamae / Monocotyledons.
\ Chalazogamae (_Casuarina_).
The names of the two subdivisions recall the manner of entrance of the
pollen-tube. More recent investigations, chiefly by Nawaschin and Miss
Benson, on members of the orders Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Juglans and
Ulmus, showed a recurrence in a greater or less degree of the various
anomalies previously observed in _Casuarina_, and suggest that the
affinity of _Casuarina_ is with these orders of Dicotyledons.
The wood is very hard, and several species are valuable timber trees.
From a fancied resemblance of the wood to that of the oak these trees
are known as "oaks," and the same species has different names in
different parts such as "she-oak," "swamp-oak," "shingle-oak,"
"river-oak," "iron-wood," "beef-wood," &c.
See J.H. Maiden, _Useful Native Plants of Australia_ (London and
Sydney, 1889).
CASUISTRY (from the Lat. _casus_, a point of law), the art of bringing
general moral principles to bear on particular actions. It is, in short,
applied morality; anybody is a casuist who reflects about his duties and
tries to bring them into line with some intelligible moral standard. But
morality at different times has worn very different dresses. It has
sometimes been thought of as an outward law, sometimes as an inward
disposition; and each of these rival conceptions has developed a
casuistical method of its own. Believers in law have put their trust in
authority or logic; while believers in disposition chiefly look to our
instinctive faculties--conscience, common-sense or sentiment. The legal
is the older group, and to it the name of casuist is often exclusively
reserved, generally with the implication that its methods are too purely
technical to commend themselves to mankind at large. But common-sense
and conscience are quite as definite guides as logic or authority; and
there seems no good reason for refusing to give the name of casuistry to
their operations.
The casuistry of primitive man is uncompromisingly legal. His morality
is not yet separated from his religion; and religion for him means the
cult of some superior being--the king or priest of his tribe--whose
person is charged with a kind of sacred electricity. "His divinity is a
fire, which, under proper restraints, confers endless blessings; but if
rashly touched, or allowed to break bounds, it burns or destroys what it
touches. Hence the disastrous effects supposed to follow a breach of
taboo; the offender has thrust his hand into the divine fire, which
shrivels up and consumes him on the spot" (Frazer, _The Golden Bough_,
i. 169). Elaborate rules are accordingly drawn up to secure the maximum
of benefit, and the minimum of inconvenience, from this sacred fire; and
in the application of these rules does savage casuistry consist. At a
higher stage of civilization the god is no longer present in person but
issues to his worshippers categorical commands. These logic must seize
upon and develop as far as they will go; for the breach of some trifling
consequence of a rule might mean the loss of the deity's favour. Hence
the rise of sacred books among most Eastern peoples. On the Jewish
Decalogue, for instance, follows the law, and on the law the rabbinical
schools. Some of these will be stricter, and some laxer; but on the
whole all tend to "aggravate" the law--down to the point of forbidding
the faithful to wear a girdle, or to kill a noxious insect on the
Sabbath. Though indeed we might look nearer home than the Talmud for
similar absurdities; most Puritan communities could furnish strange
freaks of Sabbatarian casuistry. Nor have the Catholics been one whit
behind them. Their scholastic doctors gravely discuss whether--since
water is the "matter" of baptism--a soul can be made regenerate by milk,
or rose-water or wine.
At the opposite pole stood ancient Greece. Here ceremonial casuistry
found no place, because there were no sacred books. "Among the Greeks
writing never attained the consecration of religion. No system of
doctrine and observance, no manuals containing authoritative rules of
morality, were ever transmitted in documentary form. In conduct they
shrank from formulae. Unvarying rules petrified action; the need of
flexibility, of perpetual adjustment, was strongly felt" (Butcher, _The
Greek Genius_, p. 182). For this reason their interest in ethical
speculations was all the keener; their great thinkers were endlessly
engaged in settling what the relation ought to be between duty and
self-interest. Ought one to swallow up the other--and, if so, which
should prevail? Or was it possible to patch up a compromise between
them? The great Stoic philosophers took the austerest line, and held
that duty should always and everywhere be our only law. But it was one
thing to enunciate such magnificent theories in a lecture, and quite
another to apply them in the market-place. Casuistry came to the aid of
average human nature--that is to say, pupils began to confront the
master with hard cases taken from daily life. And more than one master
was disposed to make large--even startlingly large--concessions to the
exigencies of practice. This concrete side of moral philosophy came
specially into evidence when Stoicism was transplanted to Rome. Cicero's
_De Officiis_ abounds in the kind of question afterwards so warmly
discussed by Dr Johnson and his friends. Is it ever right to tell a lie?
May a lawyer defend a client whom he knows to be guilty? In selling my
goods, is it enough not to disguise their shortcomings, or ought I
candidly to admit them? Seneca even made the discussion of such problems
into a regular discipline, claiming that their concrete character gave
an interest in morality to those who had no love for abstractions; while
they prevented those who had from losing themselves in the clouds. And
M. Thamin maintains that, if his heroes did not form great characters,
at any rate they taught the Roman child to train its conscience. But,
then, Cicero and Seneca took common-sense as their guide. They decided
each problem on its merits, looking more to the spirit than to the
letter, and often showing a practical sagacity worthy of Johnson
himself. Quite in the great doctor's spirit is Cicero's counsel to his
son, to hear what the philosophers had to say, but to decide for himself
as a man of the world. Such advice could not be grateful to the
philosophers themselves--then a definite professional class, not unlike
the "spiritual directors" of a later Rome, who earned their bread by
smoothing away the doubts of the scrupulous on all matters intellectual
and moral. Their great weapon was their logic; and a logician, as Pascal
says, must be very unfortunate or very stupid if he cannot manage to
find exceptions to every conceivable rule. In their hands casuistry
became the art of finding such exceptions. From the Greek sophists they
borrowed ingenious ways of playing off one duty against another, or duty
in general against self-interest--leaving the doubter in the alternative
of neglecting the one and being a knave, or neglecting the other and
being a fool. Or else they raised a subtle distinction between the act
and the intention. To get drunk for the sake of the drink was the mark
of a beast; but wine was a powerful stimulant to the brain, and to
fuddle oneself in order to think great thoughts was worthy of a sage. No
doubt these airy paradoxes were not always seriously taken; but it is
significant that a common Roman proverb identified "philosophizing"
(_philosophatur_) with thinking out some dirty trick.
Christianity swept the whole discussion on to a higher plane. All the
stress now fell on the disposition, not on the outward act. The good
deeds of a just man were a natural consequence of his justice; whereas a
bad man was no whit the better, because he now and then deviated into
doing right. Actions, in short, were of no account whatever, apart from
the character that produced them. "All things are lawful unto me," said
St Paul, "but all are not expedient." And St Augustine sums the whole
matter up in the famous phrase: "Have charity, and do as thou wilt."
Narrow-minded Christian consciences, however, could not stay long on
this level; law was so very much more satisfying a guide than vague,
elusive charity. And law in plenty was forthcoming, so soon as the
Church developed the discipline of public confessions followed by
appropriate penances for each fault. At first the whole proceeding was
informal and impulsive enough; but by the 7th century it had grown
thoroughly stereotyped and formal. _Libri Poenitentiales_ began to
appear--detailed lists of all possible sins, with the forfeit to be
exacted from each. As public penance finally decayed, and auricular
confession took its place, these were superseded by the _Summae de
Poenitentia_,--law-books in the strictest sense. These were huge digests
of all that popes, councils, primitive fathers had decided on every kind
of question pertaining to the confessional--what exactly is a sin, what
kind of questions the priests must ask, under what conditions he could
give absolution. As such, they were eagerly welcomed by the clergy; for
a single magistrate, sitting in secret without appeal, necessarily
grasps at whatever will lighten his burden of responsibility. Nor was
their complexity a stumbling-block. The medieval mind was only too prone
to look on morality as a highly technical art, quite as difficult as
medicine or chancery law--a path where wayfaring men were certain to
err, with no guide but their unsophisticated conscience. What could they
possibly do but cling to their priest with a "blind and unexpressed
faith"?
Against this state of things the Reformation was a violent protest.
Catholicism increasingly took for granted that a man imperilled his soul
by thinking for himself; Protestantism replied that he could certainly
lose it, if he left his thinking to another. For it is to the individual
conscience that God speaks; through the struggles of the individual
conscience He builds up a strong and stable Christian character. "A man
may be a heretic in the truth," says Milton in his _Areopagitica_
(1644), "if he believes things only because his pastor says so, or the
Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief
be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy. There is not
any burden that some would not gladlier post off to another than the
charge and care of their religion. A wealthy man, addicted to his
pleasures and his profits, finds religion to be a traffic so entangled,
and of so many piddling accounts, that of all mysteries he cannot skill
to keep a stock going upon that trade. What does he therefore but
resolve to give over toiling, and find himself some factor, to whose
care and conduct he may commit the whole managing of his religious
affairs--some divine of note and estimation that must be. To him he
adheres, resigns the whole warehouse of his religion with all the locks
and keys into his custody, and indeed makes the very person of that man
his religion. So that a man may say his religion is now no more within
himself, but is become a dividual moveable, which goes or comes near
him, according as that good man frequents the house."
Twelve years after the _Areopagitica_ appeared Pascal's _Provincial
Letters_ (1656-1657). These deal with the casuists of the
Counter-Reformation in the spirit of Milton, laying especial stress on
the artificiality of their methods and the laxity of their results. Not,
of course, that they meant deliberate evil; Pascal expressly credits
them with good intentions. But they were drawn, almost to a man, from
Italy or Spain, the two countries least alive to the spirit of the
Reformation; and most of them were Jesuits, the order that set out to be
nothing Protestantism was, and everything that Protestantism was not.
Hence they were resolutely opposed to any idea of reform; for to begin
making changes in the Church's system would be a tacit admission that
Luther had some show of reason on his side. On the other hand, they
would certainly lose their hold on the laity, unless some kind of change
were made; for many of the Church's rules were obsolete, and others far
too severe to impose on the France of Montaigne or even the Spain of
Cervantes. Thus caught between two fires the casuists developed a highly
ingenious method, not unlike that of the Roman Stoics, for eviscerating
the substance of a rule while leaving its shadow carefully intact. The
next step was to force the confessors to accept their lax interpretation
of the law; and this was accomplished by their famous theory of
_probabilism_--first taught in Spain about 1580. This made it a grave
sin in the priest to refuse absolution, whenever there was some good
reason for giving it even when there were other and better reasons for
refusing it. This principle does not deserve all the abuse that has been
lavished upon it. It secured uniformity in the confessional, and thereby
protected the penitent from the caprices of individual priests; and by
depriving these of responsibility, it forced the penitent back on
himself. But the gain was more than counterbalanced by the evil. The
less the Church could expect from its penitents, the more it was driven
to trust to the miraculous efficiency of sacramental grace. Once get a
sinner to confession, and the whole work was done. However bad his
natural disposition, the magical words of absolution would make him a
new man. As for most penitents, all they cared for was to scrape through
by the skin of their teeth. Casuistry might insist that it only proposed
to fix the minimum of a minimum, and beg them for their soul's sake to
aim a little higher. Human nature seldom resists the charms of a fixed
standard--least of all when it is applied by a live judge in a visible
court. If the priest must be satisfied with little, why be at the
trouble of offering more? For this reason, probabilism found vigorous
opponents in Bossuet and other eminent divines; and various of its
excesses were condemned by the popes during the latter half of the 17th
century. After a long eclipse it was finally re-established, though in a
very modified form, by Alfonso Liguori about the middle of the 18th
century.
In Protestant countries casuistry shrank and dwindled, though works on
the subject continued to be written both in Germany and England during
the 17th century. The best known of the Anglican books is Jeremy
Taylor's _Ductor Dubitantium_ (1660). But the Protestant casuist never
pretended to speak authoritatively; all he did was to give his reasons,
and leave the decision to the conscience of his readers. "In all this
discourse," says Bishop Sanderson, one of the best of the English
writers, "I take it upon me not to write edicts, but to give my advice."
Very soon, however, these relics of casuistry were swept away by the
rising tide of common-sense. The 18th century loved to discuss hard
cases of conscience, as a very cursory glance at Fielding's novels
(1742-1751) or Boswell's _Life of Johnson_ (1791) will show. But the age
was incurably suspicious of attempts to deal with such difficulties on
any kind of technical system. Pope was never tired of girding at
"Morality by her false guardians drawn,
Chicane in furs, and casuistry in lawn";
while Fielding has embodied the popular conception of a casuist in
Parson Thwackum and Philosopher Square, both of whom only take to
argument when they want to reason themselves out of some obvious duty.
Still more outspoken is the Savoyard vicar in the _Emile_ (1762) of Jean
Jacques Rousseau: "Whence do I get my rules of action? I find them in my
heart. All I feel to be good is good; all I feel to be evil is evil.
Conscience is the best of casuists; it is only when men wish to cheat it
that they fly to logical quibbles." Extravagant as this sentiment
sounds, it paved the way to better things. The great object of
17th-century moralists had been to find some general principle from
which the whole of ethics could be deduced; common-sense, by turning its
back on abstract principles of every kind, forced the philosophers to
come down to the solid earth, and start by inquiring how the world does
make up its mind in fact. During the last two centuries deduction has
gone steadily out, and psychology come in. Ethics have become more
distinctively a science, instead of an awkward hybrid between a science
and an art; their business has been to investigate what moral conduct
is, not to lay down the law as to what it ought to be. Hence they
deliberately refuse to engage in casuistry of the old-fashioned sort.
Further, it is increasingly felt that ethical judgments do not depend on
reason alone, but involve every element in our character; and that the
real problem of practical morality is to establish a harmonious balance
between the intelligence and the feelings--to make a man's "I think this
is right" correspond with his "I feel that it is so." Whether systematic
training can do anything to make the attainment of this balance easier
is a question that has lately engaged the attention of many educational
reformers; and whatever future casuistry may still have before it would
seem to lie along the lines indicated by them.
There is an excellent study of the ancient casuists by M. Raymond
Thamin, _Un Probleme moral dans l'antiquite_ (Paris, 1884). For the
Roman Catholic casuists see Dollinger und Reusch, _Moralstreitigkeiten
im siebzehnten Jahrhundert_ (2 vols., Nordlingen, 1889), and various
articles ("Casuistik," "Ethik," "Moralsysteme," &c.) in Wetzer and
Welte's _Kirchenlexicon_ (Freiburg, 1880-1896). See also the editions
of Pascal's _Provincial Letters_, by John de Soyres (with English
notes, Cambridge, 1880), and A. Molinier (2 vols., Paris, 1891). The
Anglican casuists are discussed in Whewell, _Lectures on Moral
Philosophy_ (London, 1862). For general reflections on the subject see
the appendix to Jowett's edition of the Epistle to the Romans (London,
1855). Most modern text-books on ethics devote some attention to the
matter--notably F.H. Bradley in his _Ethical Studies_ (London, 1876).
See also Hastings Rashdall, _Theory of Good and Evil_ (2 vols.,
Oxford, 1907). (St. C.)
CASUS BELLI, the technical term for cases in which a state holds itself
justified in making war, if a certain course to which it objects is
persisted in. Interference with the full exercise of a nation's rights
or independence, an affront to its dignity, an unredressed injury, are
instances of _casus belli_. Most of the new compulsory treaties of
arbitration entered into by Great Britain and other states exclude from
their application cases affecting the "vital interests" or "national
honour" of the contracting states. These may therefore be considered as
a sort of definition of _casus belli_ in so far as the high contracting
parties to them are concerned.