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BOOKS FATAL TO THEIR AUTHORS
By P. H. Ditchfield
To The Memory Of John Walter, Esq., M.A., J.P., Of Bearwood, Berks, This
Volume Is Respectfully And Affectionately Dedicated.
PREFACE.
TO THE BOOK-LOVER.
_To record the woes of authors and to discourse_ de libris fatalibus
_seems deliberately to court the displeasure of that fickle mistress who
presides over the destinies of writers and their works. Fortune awaits
the aspiring scribe with many wiles, and oft treats him sorely. If she
enrich any, it is but to make them subject of her sport. If she raise
others, it is but to pleasure herself with their ruins. What she adorned
but yesterday is to-day her pastime, and if we now permit her to adorn
and crown us, we must to-morrow suffer her to crush and tear us to
pieces. To-day her sovereign power is limited: she can but let loose a
host of angry critics upon us; she can but scoff at us, take away our
literary reputation, and turn away the eyes of a public as fickle as
herself from our pages. Surely that were hard enough! Can Fortune pluck
a more galling dart from her quiver, and dip the point in more envenomed
bitterness? Yes, those whose hard lot is here recorded have suffered
more terrible wounds than these. They have lost liberty, and even life,
on account of their works. The cherished offspring of their brains have,
like unnatural children, turned against their parents, causing them to
be put to death._
_Fools many of them--nay, it is surprising how many of this illustrious
family have peopled the world, and they can boast of many authors' names
which figure on their genealogical tree--men who might have lived happy,
contented, and useful lives were it not for their insane _cacoethes
scribendi_. And hereby they show their folly. If only they had been
content to write plain and ordinary commonplaces which every one
believed, and which caused every honest fellow who had a grain of sense
in his head to exclaim, "How true that is!" all would have been well.
But they must needs write something original, something different from
other men's thoughts; and immediately the censors and critics began
to spy out heresy, or laxity of morals, and the fools were dealt with
according to their folly. There used to be special houses of correction
in those days, mad-houses built upon an approved system, for the special
treatment of cases of this kind; mediaeval dungeons, an occasional
application of the rack, and other gentle instruments of torture of
an inventive age, were wonderfully efficacious in curing a man of his
folly. Nor was there any special limit to the time during which the
treatment lasted. And in case of a dangerous fit of folly, there were
always a few faggots ready, or a sharpened axe, to put a finishing
stroke to other and more gentle remedies._
_One species of folly was especially effective in procuring the
attention of the critics of the day, and that was satirical writing.
They could not tolerate that style--no, not for a moment; and many an
author has had his cap and bells, aye, and the lining too, severed from
the rest of his motley, simply because he would go and play with Satyrs
instead of keeping company with plain and simple folk._
_Far separated from the crowd of fools, save only in their fate, were
those who amid the mists of error saw the light of Truth, and strove to
tell men of her graces and perfections. The vulgar crowd heeded not
the message, and despised the messengers. They could see no difference
between the philosopher's robe and the fool's motley, the Saint's glory
and Satan's hoof. But with eager eyes and beating hearts the toilers
after Truth worked on._
_"How many with sad faith have sought her?
How many with crossed hands have sighed for her?
How many with brave hearts fought for her,
At life's dear peril wrought for her,
So loved her that they died for her,
Tasting the raptured fleetness
Of her Divine completeness?"_
_In honour of these scholars of an elder age, little understood by their
fellows, who caused them to suffer for the sake of the Truth they loved,
we doff our caps, whether they jingle or not, as you please; and if
thou thinkest, good reader, that 'twere folly to lose a life for such a
cause, the bells will match the rest of thy garb. The learning, too, of
the censors and critics was often indeed remarkable. They condemned a
recondite treatise on Trigonometry, because they imagined it contained
heretical opinions concerning the doctrine of the Trinity; and another
work which was devoted to the study of Insects was prohibited, because
they concluded that it was a secret attack upon the Jesuits. Well might
poor Galileo exclaim, "And are these then my judges?" Stossius, who
wrote a goodly book with the title "Concordia rationis et fidei,"
which was duly honoured by being burnt at Berlin, thus addresses his
slaughtered offspring, and speculates on the reason of its condemnation:
"Ad librum a ministerio damnatum._
_"Q. Parve liber, quid enim peccasti, dente sinistro. Quod te discerptum
turba sacrata velit? R. Invisum dixi verum, propter quod et olim,
Vel dominum letho turba sacrata dedit."_
_But think not, O Book-lover, that I am about to record all the race of
fools who have made themselves uncomfortable through their insane love
of writing, nor count all the books which have become instruments of
accusation against their authors. That library would be a large one
which contained all such volumes. I may only write to thee of some of
them now, and if thou shouldest require more, some other time I may tell
thee of them. Perhaps in a corner of thy book-shelves thou wilt collect
a store of Fatal Books, many of which are rare and hard to find. Know,
too, that I have derived some of the titles of works herein recorded
from a singular and rare work of M. John Christianus Klotz, published in
Latin at Leipsic, in the year 1751. To these I have added many others.
The Biographical Dictionary of Bayle is a mine from which I have often
quarried, and discovered there many rare treasures. Our own learned
literary historian, Mr. Isaac Disraeli, has recorded the woes of many of
our English writers in his book entitled "The Calamities of Authors" and
also in his "Curiosities of Literature." From these works I have derived
some information. There is a work by Menkenius, "Analecta de Calamitate
Literatorum"; another by Pierius Valerianus, "De Infelicitate
Literatorum"; another by Spizelius, "Infelix Literatus"; and last
but not least Peignot's "Dictionnaire Critique, Littéraire et
Bibliographique, des Livres condamnés au Feu" which will furnish thee
with further information concerning the woes of authors, if thine
appetite be not already sated._
_And if there be any of Folly's crowd who read this book--of those, I
mean, who work and toil by light of midnight lamp, weaving from their
brains page upon page of lore and learning, wearing their lives out,
all for the sake of an ungrateful public, which cares little for their
labour and scarcely stops to thank the toiler for his pains--if there be
any of you who read these pages, it will be as pleasant to you to feel
safe and free from the stern critics' modes of former days, as it is to
watch the storms and tempests of the sea from the secure retreat of your
study chair._
_And if at any time a cross-grained reviewer should treat thy cherished
book with scorn, and presume to ridicule thy sentiment and scoff at
thy style (which Heaven forfend!), console thyself that thou livest in
peaceable and enlightened times, and needest fear that no greater evil
can befall thee on account of thy folly in writing than the lash of his
satire and the bitterness of his caustic pen. After the manner of thy
race thou wilt tempt Fortune again. May'st thou proceed and prosper!_
Vale.
_I desire to express my many thanks to the Rev. Arthur Carr, M.A., late
Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, for his kind assistance in revising the
proofs of this work. It was my intention to dedicate this book to Mr.
John Walter, but alas! his death has deprived it of that distinction.
It is only possible now to inscribe to the memory of him whom England
mourns the results of some literary labour in which he was pleased to
take a kindly interest._
P. H. D.
BARKHAM RECTORY,
_November_, 1894.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THEOLOGY.
Michael Molinos--Bartholomew Carranza--Jerome Wecchiettus--Samuel
Clarke--Francis David--Antonio de Dominis--Noël Bède--William
Tyndale--Arias Montanus--John Huss--Antonio Bruccioli--Enzinas--Louis
Le Maistre--Caspar Peucer--Grotius--Vorstius--Pasquier Quesnel--Le
Courayer--Savonarola--Michael Servetus--Sebastian Edzardt--William of
Ockham--Abélard.
CHAPTER II.
FANATICS AND FREE-THINKERS.
Quirinus Kuhlmann--John Tennhart--Jeremiah Felbinger--Simon
Morin--Liszinski--John Toland--Thomas Woolston--John Biddle--Johann
Lyser--Bernardino Ochino--Samuel Friedrich Willenberg.
CHAPTER III.
ASTROLOGY, ALCHEMY, AND MAGIC.
Henry Cornelius Agrippa--Joseph Francis Borri--Urban Grandier--Dr.
Dee--Edward Kelly--John Darrell.
CHAPTER IV.
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.
Bishop Virgil--Roger Bacon--Galileo--Jordano Bruno--Thomas
Campanella--De Lisle de Sales--Denis Diderot--Balthazar Bekker--Isaac de
la Peyrère--Abbé de Marolles--Lucilio Vanini--Jean Rousseau.
CHAPTER V.
HISTORY.
Antonius Palearius--Caesar Baronius--John Michael Bruto--Isaac Berruyer
Louis Elias Dupin--Noel Alexandre--Peter Giannone--Joseph Sanfelicius
(Eusebius Philopater)--Arlotto--Bonfadio--De Thou--Gilbert
Génébrard--Joseph Audra--Beaumelle--John Mariana--John B. Primi--John
Christopher Rüdiger--Rudbeck--François Haudicquer--François de
Rosières--Anthony Urseus.
CHAPTER VI.
POLITICS AND STATESMANSHIP.
John Fisher--Reginald Pole--"Martin
Marprelate"--Udal--Penry--Hacket--Coppinger--Arthington--Cartwright
--Cowell--Leighton--John Stubbs--Peter Wentworth--R. Doleman--J. Hales--
Reboul--William Prynne--BurtonBastwick--John Selden--John Tutchin--
Delaune--Samuel Johnson--Algernon Sidney--Edmund Richer--John de
Falkemberg--Jean Lenoir--Simon Linguet--Abbé Caveirac--Darigrand--Pietro
Sarpi--Jerome Maggi--Theodore Reinking.
CHAPTER VII.
SATIRE.
Roger Rabutin de Bussy--M. Dassy--Trajan Boccalini--Pierre
Billard--Pietro Aretino--Felix Hemmerlin--John Giovanni
Cinelli--Nicholas Francus--Lorenzo Valla--Ferrante Pallavicino--François
Gacon--Daniel Defoe--Du Rosoi--Caspar Scioppius.
CHAPTER VIII.
POETRY.
Adrian Beverland--Cecco d'Ascoli--George Buchanan--Nicodemus
Frischlin--Clement Marot--Gaspar Weiser--John
Williams--Deforges--Théophile--Hélot--Matteo Palmieri--La Grange--Pierre
Petit--Voltaire--Montgomery--Keats--Joseph Ritson.
CHAPTER IX.
DRAMA AND ROMANCE.
Sir John Yorke and Catholic Plays--Abraham Cowley--Antoine
Danchet--Claude Crébillon--Nogaret--François de Salignac Fénélon.
CHAPTER X.
BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS.
The Printers of Nicholas de Lyra and Caesar Baronius--John Fust--Richard
Grafton--Jacob van Liesvelt--John Lufftius--Robert Stephens
(Estienne)--Henry Stephens--Simon Ockley--Floyer Sydenham--Edmund
Castell--Page--John Lilburne--Etienne Dolet--John Morin--Christian
Wechel--Andrew Wechel--Jacques Froullé--Godonesche--William Anderton.
CHAPTER XI.
SOME LITERARY MARTYRS.
Leland--Strutt--Cotgrave--Henry Wharton--Robert Heron--Collins--William
Cole--Homeric victims--Joshua Barnes--An example of unrequited
toil--BorgarutiusPays.
INDEX
BOOKS FATAL TO THEIR AUTHORS.
CHAPTER I. THEOLOGY.
Michael Molinos--Bartholomew Carranza--Jerome Wecchiettus--Samuel
Clarke--Francis David--Antonio de Dominis--Noël Bède--William
Tyndale--Arias Montanus--John Huss--Antonio Bruccioli--Enzinas--Louis
Le Maistre--Gaspar Peucer--Grotius--Vorstius--Pasquier Quesnel--Le
Courayer--Savonarola--Michael Servetus--Sebastian Edzardt--William of
Ockham--Abélard.
Since the knowledge of Truth is the sovereign good of human nature, it
is natural that in every age she should have many seekers, and those who
ventured in quest of her in the dark days of ignorance and superstition
amidst the mists and tempests of the sixteenth century often ran counter
to the opinions of dominant parties, and fell into the hands of foes who
knew no pity. Inasmuch as Theology and Religion are the highest of all
studies--the _aroma scientiarum_--they have attracted the most powerful
minds and the subtlest intellects to their elucidation; no other
subjects have excited men's minds and aroused their passions as these
have done; on account of their unspeakable importance, no other subjects
have kindled such heat and strife, or proved themselves more fatal
to many of the authors who wrote concerning them. In an evil hour
persecutions were resorted to to force consciences, Roman Catholics
burning and torturing Protestants, and the latter retaliating and using
the same weapons; surely this was, as Bacon wrote, "to bring down the
Holy Ghost, instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture
or raven; and to set, out of the bark of a Christian Church, a flag of a
bark of pirates and assassins."
The historian then will not be surprised to find that by far the larger
number of Fatal Books deal with these subjects of Theology and Religion,
and many of them belong to the stormy period of the Reformation. They
met with severe critics in the merciless Inquisition, and sad was the
fate of a luckless author who found himself opposed to the opinions of
that dread tribunal. There was no appeal from its decisions, and if a
taint of heresy, or of what it was pleased to call heresy, was detected
in any book, the doom of its author was sealed, and the ingenuity of the
age was well-nigh exhausted in devising methods for administering the
largest amount of torture before death ended his woes.
_Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum._
Liberty of conscience was a thing unknown in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries; and while we prize that liberty as a priceless
possession, we can but admire the constancy and courage of those who
lived in less happy days. We are not concerned now in condemning or
defending their opinions or their beliefs, but we may at least praise
their boldness and mourn their fate.
The first author we record whose works proved fatal to him was Michael
Molinos, a Spanish theologian born in 1627, a pious and devout man
who resided at Rome and acted as confessor. He published in 1675 _The
Spiritual Manual_, which was translated from Italian into Latin, and
together with a treatise on _The Daily Communion_ was printed with this
title: _A Spiritual Manual, releasing the soul and leading it along the
interior way to the acquiring the perfection of contemplation and
the rich treasure of internal peace_. In the preface Molinos writes:
"Mystical theology is not a science of the imagination, but of feelings;
we do not understand it by study, but we receive it from heaven.
Therefore in this little work I have received far greater assistance
from the infinite goodness of God, who has deigned to inspire me, than
from the thoughts which the reading of books has suggested to me." The
object of the work is to teach that the pious mind must possess quietude
in order to attain to any spiritual progress, and that for this purpose
it must be abstracted from visible objects and thus rendered susceptible
of heavenly influence. This work received the approval of the Archbishop
of the kingdom of Calabria, and many other theologians of the Church.
It won for its author the favour of Cardinal Estraeus and also of Pope
Innocent XI. It was examined by the Inquisition at the instigation
of the Jesuits, and passed that trying ordeal unscathed. But the book
raised up many powerful adversaries against its author, who did not
scruple to charge Molinos with Judaism, Mohammedanism, and many other
"isms," but without any avail, until at length they approached the
confessor of the King of Naples, and obtained an order addressed to
Cardinal Estraeus for the further examination of the book. The Cardinal
preferred the favour of the king to his private friendship. Molinos was
tried in 1685, and two years later was conducted in his priestly robes
to the temple of Minerva, where he was bound, and holding in his hand
a wax taper was compelled to renounce sixty-eight articles which the
Inquisition decreed were deduced from his book. He was afterwards doomed
to perpetual imprisonment. On his way to the prison he encountered one
of his opponents and exclaimed, "Farewell, my father; we shall meet
again on the day of judgment, and then it will be manifest on which
side, on yours or mine, the Truth shall stand." For eleven long years
Molinos languished in the dungeons of the Inquisition, where he died in
1696. His work was translated into French and appeared in a _Recueil de
pièces sur le Quiétisme_, published in Amsterdam 1688. Molinos has been
considered the leader and founder of the Quietism of the seventeenth
century. The monks of Mount Athos in the fourteenth, the Molinosists,
Madame Guyon, Fénélon, and others in the seventeenth century, all
belonged to that contemplative company of Christians who thought that
the highest state of perfection consisted in the repose and complete
inaction of the soul, that life ought to be one of entire passive
contemplation, and that good works and active industry were only fitting
for those who were toiling in a lower sphere and had not attained to the
higher regions of spiritual mysticism. Thus the '[Greek: Aesuchastai]'
on Mount Athos contemplated their nose or their navel, and called the
effect of their meditations "the divine light," and Molinos pined in his
dungeon, and left his works to be castigated by the renowned Bossuet.
The pious, devout, and learned Spanish divine was worthy of a better
fate, and perhaps a little more quietism and a little less restlessness
would not be amiss in our busy nineteenth century.
The noblest prey ever captured by those keen hunters, the Inquisitors,
was Bartholomew Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, in 1558, one of the
richest and most powerful prelates in Christendom. He enjoyed the favour
of his sovereign Philip II. of Spain, whom he accompanied to England,
and helped to burn our English Protestants. Unfortunately in an evil
hour he turned to authorship, and published a catechism under this
title: _Commentarios sobre el Catequismo Cristiano divididos en
quatro partes las quales contienen fodo loque professamor en el sancto
baptismo, como se vera en la plana seguiente dirigidos al serenissimo
Roy de España_ (Antwerp). On account of this work he was accused of
Lutheranism, and his capture arranged by his enemies. At midnight, after
the Archbishop had retired to rest, a knock was heard at the door of
the chamber. "Who calls?" asked the attendant friar. "Open to the Holy
Office," was the answer. Immediately the door flew open, for none dared
resist that terrible summons, and Ramirez, the Inquisitor-General of
Toledo, entered. The Archbishop raised himself in his bed, and demanded
the reason of the intrusion. An order for his arrest was produced,
and he was speedily conveyed to the dungeons of the Inquisition at
Valladolid. For seven long years he lingered there, and was then
summoned to Rome in 1566 by Pius V. and imprisoned for six years in the
Castle of St. Angelo. The successor of Pope Pius V., Gregory XIII.,
at length pronounced him guilty of false doctrine. His catechism was
condemned; he was compelled to abjure sixteen propositions, and besides
other penances he was confined for five years in a monastery. Broken
down by his eighteen years' imprisonment and by the hardships he had
undergone, he died sixteen days after his cruel sentence had been
pronounced. [Footnote: Cf. _The Church of Spain_, by Canon Meyrick.
(National Churches Series.)] On his deathbed he solemnly declared that
he had never seriously offended with regard to the Faith. The people
were very indignant against his persecutors, and on the day of his
funeral all the shops were closed as on a great festival. His body was
honoured as that of a saint. His captors doubtless regretted his death,
inasmuch as the Pope is said to have received a thousand gold pieces
each month for sparing his life, and Philip appropriated the revenues of
his see for his own charitable purposes, which happened at that time to
be suppression of heresy in the Netherlands by the usual means of rack
and fire and burying alive helpless victims.
A very fatal book was one entitled _Opus de anno primitivo ab exordia
mundi, ad annum Julianum accommodato, et de sacrorum temporum ratione.
Augustae-Vindelicorum_, 1621, _in folio magno_. It is a work of Jerome
Wecchiettus, a Florentine doctor of theology. The Inquisition attacked
and condemned the book to the flames, and its author to perpetual
imprisonment. Being absent from Rome he was comparatively safe, but
surprised the whole world by voluntarily submitting himself to his
persecutors, and surrendering himself to prison. This extraordinary
humility disarmed his foes, but it did not soften much the hearts of the
Inquisitors, who permitted him to end his days in the cell. The causes
of the condemnation of the work are not very evident. One idea is that
in his work the author pretended to prove that Christ did not eat the
passover during the last year of His life; and another states that he
did not sufficiently honour the memory of Louis of Bavaria, and thus
aroused the anger of the strong supporters of that ancient house.
The first English author whose woes we record is Samuel Clarke, who was
born at Norwich in 1675, and was for some time chaplain to the bishop of
that see. He was very intimate with the scientific men of his time,
and especially with Newton. In 1704 he published his Boyle Lectures, _A
Treatise on the Being and Attributes of God, and on Natural and Revealed
Religion_, which found its way into other lands, a translation being
published in Amsterdam in 1721. Our author became chaplain to Queen
Anne and Rector of St. James's. He was a profoundly learned and devout
student, and obtained a European renown as a true Christian philosopher.
In controversy he encountered foemen worthy of his steel, such as
Spinosa, Hobbes, Dodwell, Collins, Leibnitz, and others. But in 1712 he
published _The Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity_, which was declared
to be opposed to the Christian belief and tainted with Arianism. The
attention of Parliament was called to the book; the arguments were
disputed by Edward Wells, John Edwards, and William Sommer; and Clarke
was deprived of his offices. The charge of heterodoxy was certainly
never proved against him; he did good service in trying to stem the
flood of rationalism prevalent in his time, and his work was carried
on by Bishop Butler. His correspondence with Leibnitz on Time, Space,
Necessity, and Liberty was published in 1717, and his editions of
Caesar and Homer were no mean contributions to the study of classical
literature.
In the sixteenth century there lived in Hungary one Francis David, a man
learned in the arts and languages, but his inconstancy and fickleness of
mind led him into diverse errors, and brought about his destruction.
He left the Church, and first embraced Calvinism; then he fled into
the camp of the Semi-Judaising party, publishing a book _De Christo
non invocando_, which was answered by Faustus Socinus, the founder of
Socinianism. The Prince of Transylvania, Christopher Bathori, condemned
David as an impious innovator and preacher of strange doctrines, and
cast him into prison, where he died in 1579. There is extant a letter of
David to the Churches of Poland concerning the millennium of Christ.
Our next author was a victim to the same inconstancy of mind which
proved so fatal to Francis David, but sordid reasons and the love of
gain without doubt influenced his conduct and produced his fickleness of
faith. Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, was a shining light
of the Roman Church at the end of the sixteenth century. He was born
in 1566, and educated by the Jesuits. He was learned in history and in
science, and was the first to discover the cause of the rainbow, his
explanation being adopted and perfected by Descartes. The Jesuits
obtained for him the Professorship of Mathematics at Padua, and of
Logic and Rhetoric at Brescia. After his ordination he became a popular
preacher and was consecrated Bishop of Segni, and afterwards Archbishop
of Spalatro in Dalmatia. He took a leading part in the controversy
between the Republic of Venice and the Pope, and after the
reconciliation between the two parties was obliged by the Pope to pay an
annual pension of five hundred crowns out of the revenues of his see to
the Bishop of Segni. This highly incensed the avaricious prelate, who
immediately began to look out for himself a more lucrative piece of
preferment. He applied to Sir Dudley Carleton, the English Ambassador at
Venice, to know whether he would be received into the Church of England,
as the abuses and corruptions of the Church of Rome prevented him from
remaining any longer in her communion.
King James I. heartily approved of his proposal, and gave him a most
honourable reception, both in the Universities and at Court. All the
English bishops agreed to contribute towards his maintenance. Fuller
says: "It is incredible what flocking of people there was to behold this
old archbishop now a new convert; prelates and peers presented him with
gifts of high valuation." Other writers of the period describe him
as "old and corpulent," but of a "comely presence"; irascible and
pretentious, gifted with an unlimited assurance and plenty of ready wit
in writing and speaking; of a "jeering temper," and of a most grasping
avarice. He was ridiculed on the stage in Middleton's play, _The Game
of Chess_, as the "Fat Bishop." "He was well named De Dominis in the
plural," says Crakanthorp, "for he could serve two masters, or twenty,
if they paid him wages."
Our author now proceeded to finish his great work, which he published in
1617 in three large folios--_De Republicâ Ecclesiasticâ_, of which the
original still exists among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library
at Oxford. "He exclaims," says Fuller, "'in reading, meditation, and
writing, I am almost pined away,' but his fat cheeks did confute
his false tongue in that expression." In this book he shows that the
authority of the Bishop of Rome can easily be disproved from Holy
Scripture, that it receives no support from the judgment of history and
antiquity, that the early bishops of that see had no precedence over
other bishops, nor were in the least able to control those of other
countries. He declares that the inequality in power amongst the Apostles
is a human invention, not founded on the Gospels; that in the Holy
Eucharist the priest does not offer the sacrifice of Christ, but only
the commemoration of that sacrifice; that the Church has no coercive
power, that John Huss was wrongfully condemned at the Council of
Constance; that the Holy Spirit was promised to the whole Church, and
not only to bishops and priests; that the papacy is a fiction invented
by men; and he states many other propositions which must have been
somewhat distasteful to the Pope and his followers.
James rewarded De Dominis by conferring on him the Mastership of the
Savoy and the Deanery of Windsor, and he further increased his wealth by
presenting himself to the rich living of West Ilsley, in Berkshire.
In an unfortunate moment he insulted Count Gondomar, the Spanish
Ambassador, who determined to be revenged, and persuaded the Pope to
send the most flattering offers if he would return to his former faith.
Pope Gregory XV., a relative of De Dominis, had just ascended the Papal
throne. The bait took. De Dominis, discontented with the _non multum
supra quadringentas libras annuas_ which he received in England, and
pining after the _duodecim millia Coronatorum_ promised by the Pope,
resolved to leave our shores. James was indignant. Bishop Hall tried to
dissuade him from his purpose. "Tell me, by the Immortal God, what it is
that can snatch you from us so suddenly, after a delay of so many years,
and drive you to Rome? Has our race appeared to you inhospitable, or
have we shown favour to your virtues less than you hoped? You cannot
plead that this is the cause of your departure, upon whom a most
kind sovereign has bestowed such ample gifts and conferred such rich
offices." The Archbishop was questioned by the Bishops of London
and Durham, by order of the king, with regard to his intentions, and
commanded to leave the country within twenty days. He was known to have
amassed a large sum of money during his sojourn in England, and his
trunks were seized, and found to contain over £1,600. De Dominis fled
to Brussels, and there wrote his _Consilium Reditûs_, giving his
reasons for rejoining the Roman Church, and expecting daily his promised
reward--a cardinal's hat and a rich bishopric. His hopes were doomed
to be disappointed. For a short time he received a pension from Gregory
XV., but this was discontinued by Urban VIII., and our author became
dissatisfied and imprudently talked of again changing his faith. He
was heard to exclaim at supper on one occasion, "That no Catholic had
answered his book, _De Republicâ Ecclesiasticâ_, but that he himself was
able to deal with them." The Inquisition seized him, and he was conveyed
to the Castle of St. Angelo, where he soon died, as some writers assert,
by poison. His body and his books were burned by the executioner, and
the ashes thrown into the Tiber. Dr. Fitzgerald, Rector of the English
College at Rome, thus describes him: "He was a malcontent knave when
he fled from us, a railing knave when he lived with you, and a motley
particoloured knave now he is come again." He had undoubtedly great
learning and skill in controversy, [Footnote: His opinion with regard to
the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan over suffragan bishops was referred
to in the recent trial of the Bishop of Lincoln.] but avarice was his
master, and he was rewarded according to his deserts. [Footnote:
Cf. article by the Rev. C. W. Penny in the _Journal of the Berks
Archaeological Society_, on Antonio de Dominis.]
The lonely fortress of Mont-Saint-Michel saw the end of a bitter
controversialist, Noël Bède, who died there in 1587. He wrote _Natalis
Bedoe, doctoris Theol. Parisiensis annotationum in Erasmi paraphrases
Novi Testamenti, et Jacobi Fabri Stapulensis commentarios in
Evangelistas, Paulique Epistolas, Libri III., Parisiis_, 1526, _in-fol_.
This work abounds in vehement criticisms and violent declamations.
Erasmus did not fail to reply to his calumniator, and detected no
less than eighty-one falsehoods, two hundred and six calumnies, and
forty-seven blasphemies. Bède continued to denounce Erasmus as a
heretic, and in a sermon before the court reproached the king for not
punishing such unbelievers with sufficient rigour. The author was twice
banished, and finally was compelled to make a public retractation in the
Church of Notre Dame, for having spoken against the king and the truth,
and to be exiled to Mont-Saint-Michel.
Translators of the Bible fared not well at the hands of those who were
unwilling that the Scriptures should be studied in the vulgar tongue
by the lay-folk, and foremost among that brave band of self-sacrificing
scholars stands William Tyndale. His life is well known, and needs no
recapitulation; but it may be noted that his books, rather than his
work of translating the Scriptures, brought about his destruction.
His important work called _The Practice of Prelates_, which was mainly
directed against the corruptions of the hierarchy, unfortunately
contained a vehement condemnation of the divorce of Catherine of Arragon
by Henry VIII. This deeply offended the monarch at the very time that
negotiations were in progress for the return of Tyndale to his native
shores from Antwerp, and he declared that he was "very joyous to have
his realm destitute of such a person." The _Practice of Prelates_ was
partly written in answer to the _Dialogue_ of Sir Thomas More, who
was commissioned to combat the "pernicious and heretical" works of the
"impious enemies of the Church." Tyndale wrote also a bitter _Answer_ to
the _Dialogue_, and this drew forth from More his abusive and scurrilous
_Confutation_, which did little credit to the writer or to the cause for
which he contended Tyndale's longest controversial work, entitled _The
Obedience of a Christian Man, and how Christian Rulers ought to
govern_, although it stirred up much hostility against its author, very
favourably impressed King Henry, who delighted in it, and declared
that "the book was for him and for all kings to read." The story of the
burning of the translation of the New Testament at St. Paul's Cross by
Bishop Tunstall, of the same bishop's purchase of a "heap of the books"
for the same charitable purpose, thereby furnishing Tyndale with means
for providing another edition and for printing his translation of the
Pentateuch, all this is a thrice-told tale. Nor need we record the
account of the conspiracy which sealed his doom. For sixteen months he
was imprisoned in the Castle of Vilvoord, and we find him petitioning
for some warm clothing and "for a candle in the evening, for it is
wearisome to sit alone in the dark," and above all for his Hebrew Bible,
Grammar, and Dictionary, that he might spend his time in that study.
After a long dreary mockery of a trial on October 16th, 1536, he was
chained to a stake with faggots piled around him. "As he stood firmly
among the wood, with the executioner ready to strangle him, he lifted up
his eyes to heaven and cried with a fervent zeal and loud voice, 'Lord,
open the King of England's eyes!' and then, yielding himself to the
executioner, he was strangled, and his body immediately consumed." That
same year, by the King's command, the first edition of the Bible was
published in London. If Tyndale had confined himself to the great work
of translating the Scriptures, and had abandoned controversy and his
_Practice of Prelates_, his fate might have been different; but, as Mr.
Froude says, "he was a man whose history has been lost in his work, and
whose epitaph is the Reformation."
Another translator, whose fate was not so tragic, was the learned Arias
Montanus, a Spaniard, who produced at the command of King Philip II. the
famous Polyglot Bible printed at Antwerp in nine tomes. He possessed a
wonderful knowledge of several languages, and devoted immense labour to
his great work. But in spite of the royal approval of his work his book
met with much opposition on the part of the extreme Roman party, who
accused him to the Pope and made many false charges against him. The
Pope was enraged against Montanus, and he was obliged to go to Rome to
plead his cause. He at length obtained pardon from the Pope, and escaped
the "chariots of fire" which bore the souls of so many martyred saints
to heaven. It is a curious irony of fate that Montanus, who was one of
the chief compilers of the _Index Expurgatorius_, should live to see his
own work placed on the condemned list.
The story of the martyrdom of John Huss is well known, and need not be
here related, but perhaps the books which caused his death are not so
frequently studied or their titles remembered. His most important work
was his _De Ecclesiâ_, in which he maintained the rigid doctrine of
predestination, denied to the Pope the title of Head of the Church,
declaring that the Pope is the vicar of St. Peter, if he walk in his
steps; but if he give in to covetousness, he is the vicar of Judas
Iscariot. He reprobates the flattery which was commonly used towards the
Pope, and denounces the luxury and other corruptions of the cardinals.
Besides this treatise we have many others--_Adv. Indulgentias, De
Erectione Crucis_, etc. He wrote in Latin, Bohemian, and German, and
recently his Bohemian writings have been edited by K. J. Erben, Prague
(1865). His plain speaking aroused the fury of his adversaries, and he
knew his danger. On one occasion he made a strange challenge, offering
to maintain his opinions in disputation, and consenting to be burnt if
his conclusions were proved to be wrong, on condition that his opponents
should submit to the same fate in case of defeat. But as they would
only sacrifice one out of the company of his foes, he declared that the
conditions were unequal, and the challenge was abandoned. When at last
he was granted a safe conduct by the Emperor Sigismund, and trusted
himself to the Council of Constance, his fate was sealed. Even in his
noisome prison his pen (when he could procure one) was not idle,
and Huss composed during his confinement several tracts on religious
subjects. At length his degradation was completed; a tall paper cap
painted with hideous figures of devils was placed upon his head, and a
bishop said to him, "We commit thy body to the secular arm, and thy
soul to the devil." "And I," replied the martyr, "commit it to my most
merciful Lord, Jesus Christ." When on his way to execution he saw his
Fatal Books being burnt amidst an excited crowd, he smiled and remarked
on the folly of people burning what they could not read.
Another translator of the Bible was Antonio Bruccioli, who published in
Venice, in 1546, the following edition of the Holy Scriptures: _Biblia
en lengua toscana, cioë, i tutti i santi libri del vecchio y Novo
Testamento, in lengua toscana, dalla hebraica verita, e fonte greco, con
commento da Antonio Bruccioli_. Although a Roman Catholic, he favoured
Protestant views, and did not show much love for either the monks or
priests. His bold comments attracted the attention of the Inquisition,
who condemned his work and placed it on the Index. The author was
condemned to death by hanging, but happily for him powerful friends
interceded, and his punishment was modified to a two years' banishment.
He died in 1555, when Protestant burnings were in vogue in England.
Enzinas, the author of a Spanish translation of the New Testament
entitled _El Nuevo Testamento de N. Redemptor y Salvador J. C. traduzido
en lengua castellana (En Amberes, 1543, in-8)_, dedicated his work to
Charles V. But it caused him to be imprisoned fifteen months. Happily
he discovered a means of escape from his dungeon, and retired to safe
quarters at Geneva. In France he adopted the _nom-de-plume_ of Dryander,
and his _History of the Netherlands and of Religion in Spain_ forms
part of the Protestant martyrology published in Germany. The author's
brother, John Dryander, was burnt at Rome in 1545.
The Jansenist Louis Le Maistre, better known under the name of de Sacy,
was imprisoned in the Bastille on account of his opinions and also for
his French translation of the New Testament, published at Mons, in 1667,
and entitled _Le Nouveau Testament de N.S.J.C., traduit en français
selon l'édition Vulgate, avec les différences du grec_ (2 vols., in-12).
This famous work, known by the name of the New Testament of Mons, has
been condemned by many popes, bishops, and other authorities. Louis Le
Maistre was assisted in the work by his brother, and the translation was
improved by Arnaud and Nicole. Pope Clement IX. described the work
as "rash, pernicious, different from the Vulgate, and containing many
stumbling-blocks for the unlearned." When confined in the Bastille, Le
Maistre and his friend Nicolas Fontaine wrote _Les Figures de la Bible_,
which work is usually attributed to the latter author. According to the
Jesuits, the Port-Royalists are represented under the figure of David,
their antagonists as Saul. Louis XIV. appears as Rehoboam, Jezebel,
Ahasuerus, and Darius. But these fanciful interpretations are probably
due to the imagination of the critics.
The fate of Gaspar Peucer enforces the truth of the old adage that "a
shoemaker ought to stick to his last," and shows that those men court
adversity who meddle with matters outside their profession. Peucer was a
doctor of medicine of the academy of Würtemberg, and wrote several works
on astronomy, medicine, and history. He was a friend of Melanchthon,
and became imbued with Calvinistic notions, which he manifested in his
publication of the works of the Reformer. On account of this he was
imprisoned eleven years. By the favour of the Elector he was at length
released, and wrote a _History of his Captivity_ (Zurich, 1605). A
curious work, entitled _A Treatise on Divination_, was published by
Peucer at Würtemberg, written in Latin, in 1552. He ranks among the most
learned men of Germany of the sixteenth century.
There were many Fatal Books in Holland during the famous controversy
between the Arminians and the Gomarists, which ended in the famous Synod
of Dort, and for vehemence, bigotry, and intolerance is as remarkable as
any which can be found in ecclesiastical history. The learned
historian Grotius was imprisoned, but he wrote no book which caused his
misfortune. Indeed his books were instrumental in his escape, which was
effected by means of his large box containing books brought into the
prison by his wife. When removed from the prison it contained, not the
books, but the author. Vorstius, the successor of Arminius as Professor
of Theology at Leyden, was not so happy. His book, _Tractatus de Deo,
seu de naturâ et attributis Dei_ (Steinfurti, 1610, in-4), aroused
the vengeance of the Gomarists, and brought about the loss of his
professorship and his banishment from Holland; but any injustice might
have been expected from that extraordinary Synod, where theology was
mystified, religion disgraced, and Christianity outraged. [Footnote: Cf.
_Church in the Netherlands_, by P.H. Ditchfield, chap. xvii.]
Few books have created such a sensation in the world or aroused so
prolonged a controversy as _Les Réflexions Morales_ of Pasquier Quesnel,
published in 1671. The full title of the work is _Le Nouveau Testament
en Français, avec des réflexions morales sur chaque verset_ (Paris,
1671, i vol., in-12), _pour les quatre Evangiles seulement_. Praslard
was the publisher. In 1693 and 1694 appeared another edition, containing
his _réflexions morales_, not only on the Gospels, but also on the
Acts and the Epistles. Many subsequent editions have appeared. Not only
France, but the whole of the Western Church was agitated by it, and its
far-reaching effects have hardly yet passed away. It caused its author
a long period of incarceration; it became a weapon in the hands of the
Jesuits to hurl at the Jansenists, and the Papal Bull pronounced against
it was the cause of the separation of a large body of the faithful from
the communion of the Roman Church. Its author was born at Paris in 1634,
and was educated in the congregation of the Oratory. Appointed director
of its school in Paris, he wrote _Pensées Chrétiennes sur les quatre
Evangiles_, which was the germ of his later work. In 1684 he fled to
Brussels, because he felt himself unable to sign a formulary decreed by
the Oratorians on account of its acceptance of some of the principles
of Descartes to which Arnauld and the famous writers of the school of
Port-Royal always offered vehement opposition.
A second edition of _Réflexions Morales_ appeared in 1694 with the
approval of De Noailles, then Bishop of Châlons, afterwards Archbishop
of Paris. But a few years later, by the intrigues of the Jesuits, and
by the order of Philip V., Quesnel was imprisoned at Mechlin. In 1703 he
escaped and retired to Amsterdam, where he died in 1719. But the history
of the book did not close with the author's death. It was condemned by
Pope Clement XI. in 1708 as infected with Jansenism. Four years later an
assembly of five cardinals and eleven theologians sat in judgment upon
it; their deliberations lasted eighteen months, and the result of their
labours was the famous Bull _Unigenitus_, which condemned one hundred
and one propositions taken from the writings of Quesnel.
The unreasonableness and injustice of this condemnation may be
understood from the following extracts:--
Proposition 50.--"It is in vain that we cry to God, My _Father_, if it
is not the Spirit of love that cries."
This is described as "pernicious in practice, and offensive to pious
ears."
Proposition 54.--"It is love alone that speaks to God; it is love alone
that God hears."
This, according to the cardinals, "is scandalous, temerarious, impious,
and erroneous."
The acceptance of the Bull was a great stumbling-block to many
churchmen. Louis XIV. forced it upon the French bishops, who were
entertained at a sumptuous banquet given by the Archbishop of Strasbourg
and by a large majority decided against the Quesnelites. It is
unnecessary to follow the history of this controversy further.
France was long agitated by it, and the Church of Holland was and is
excommunicate from Rome mainly on account of its refusal to accept the
Bull _Unigenitus_, which was called forth by and so unjustly condemned
Quesnel's famous book.
In connection with the history of this Bull we may mention the work of
one of its most vehement opponents, Pierre François le Courayer, of the
order of the canons regular of St. Augustine, who wrote a book of great
interest to English churchmen, entitled _Dissertation sur la validité
des Ordinations Anglicanes_ (Bruxelles, 1723, 2 vols., in-12). This book
was condemned and its author excommunicated. He retired to the shelter
of the Church whose right of succession he so ably defended, and died in
London in 1776.
Few authors have received greater honour for their works, or endured
severer calamities on account of them, than the famous Florentine
preacher Savonarola. Endowed with a marvellous eloquence, imbued with
a spirit of enthusiastic patriotism and intense devotion, he inveighed
against the vices of the age, the worldliness of the clergy, the selfish
ease of the wealthy while the poor were crying for bread in want and
sickness. The good citizens of Florence believed that he was an angel
from heaven, that he had miraculous powers, could speak with God and
foretell the future; and while the women of Florence cast their jewels
and finery into the flames of the "bonfire of vanities," the men,
inspired by the preacher's dreams of freedom, were preparing to throw
off the yoke of the Medicis and proclaim a grand Florentine Republic.
The revolution was accomplished, and for three years Savonarola
was practically the ruler of the new state. His works were:
_Commentatiuncula de Mahumetanorum secta; Triumphus crucis, sive de
fidei Christianae veritate_ in four books (1497), de _Simplicitate vitae
Christianae_ in five books, and _Compendium Revelationis_ (1495), and
many volumes of his discourses, some of which are the rarest treasures
of incunabula.
[Footnote: At Venice in the library of Leo S. Olschki I have met with
some of these volumes, the rarest of which is entitled:--
PREDICHE DEL REVERENDO
PADRE FRATE HIERONYMO
_Da Ferrara facie lanno del_. 1496
_negiorni delle feste, finito che
hebbe la quaresima: & prima
riposatosi circa uno mese
ricomincio eldi di Scõ
Michele Adi. viii di
Maggio. MCCCC
LXXXXVI._
The text commences "CREDITE IN Dño Deo uestro & securi eritis." In
the cell of Savonarola at the Monastery of St. Mark is preserved a MS.
volume of the famous preacher. The writing is very small, and must have
taxed the skill of the printers in deciphering it.]
The austerity of his teaching excited some hostility against him,
especially on the part of the monks who did not belong to his
order--that of the Dominicans. He had poured such bitter invective both
in his books and in his sermons upon the vices of the Popes and the
Cardinals, that they too formed a powerful party in league against him.
In addition the friends of the Medicis resented the overthrow of their
power, and the populace, ever fickle in their affections, required fresh
wonders and signs to keep them faithful to their leader. The opportunity
of his enemies came when Charles VIII. of France retired from Florence.
They accused Savonarola of all kinds of wickedness. He was cast into
prison, tortured, and condemned to death as a heretic. In what his
heresy consisted it were hard to discover. It was true that when his
poor, shattered, sensitive frame was being torn and rent by the cruel
engines of torture, he assented to many things which his persecutors
strove to wring from him. The real cause of his destruction was not
so much the charges of heresy which were brought against his books and
sermons, as the fact that he was a person inconvenient to Pope Alexander
VI. On the 23rd of May, 1498, he met his doom in the great piazza at
Florence where in happier days he had held the multitude spell-bound by
his burning eloquence. There sentence was passed upon him. Stripped of
his black Dominican robe and long white tunic, he was bound to a gibbet,
strangled by a halter, and his dead body consumed by fire, his ashes
being thrown into the river Arno. Such was the miserable end of the
great Florentine preacher, whose strange and complex character has been
so often discussed, and whose remarkable career has furnished a theme
for poets and romance-writers, and forms the basis of one of the most
powerful novels of modern times.
Not only were the Inquisitors and the Cardinals guilty of intolerance
and the stern rigour of persecution, but the Reformers themselves, when
they had the power, refrained not from torturing and burning those who
did not accept their own particular belief. This they did not merely
out of a spirit of revenge conceived against those who had formerly
condemned their fathers and brethren to the stake, but sometimes we see
instances of Reformers slaughtering Reformers, because the victims did
not hold quite the same tenets as those who were in power. Poor Michael
Servetus shared as hard a fate at the hands of Calvin, as ever "heretic"
did at the hands of the Catholics; and this fate was entirely caused by
his writings. This author was born in Spain, at Villaneuva in Arragon,
in 1509. At an early age he went to Africa to learn Arabic, and on his
return settled in France, studying law at Toulouse, and medicine at
Lyons and Paris.
But the principles of the Reformed religion attracted him; he studied
the Scriptures in their original languages, and the writings of the
fathers and schoolmen. Unhappily his perverse and self-reliant spirit
led him into grievous errors with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity.
In vain the gentle Reformer Oecolampadius at Basle reasoned with him.
He must needs disseminate his opinions in a book entitled _De Trinitatis
Erroribus_, which has handed the name of Servetus down to posterity as
the author of errors opposed to the tenets of the Christian Faith. Bucer
declared that he deserved the most shameful death on account of the
ideas set forth in this work. In his next work, _Dialogues on the
Trinity_ and _A Treatise on the Kingdom of Christ_, Servetus somewhat
modified his views, and declared that his former reasonings were merely
"those of a boy speaking to boys"; but he blamed rather the arrangement
of his book, than retracted the opinions he had expressed.
He also annotated Pagnini's Latin version of the Sacred Scriptures,
entitled _Biblia sacra latina ex hebraeo, per Sanctum Pagninum, cum
praefatione et scholiis Michaelis Villanovani (Michel Servet). Lugduni,
a Porta_, 1542, _in-folio_. This edition was vigorously suppressed on
account of the notes of Servetus.
After sojourning some time in Italy, he returned to France in 1534, and
settled at Lyons, where he published a new and highly esteemed edition
of the Geography of Ptolemy, inscribing himself as Michael Villanovanus,
from the name of his birthplace. His former works had been published
under the name of Reves, formed by the transposition of the letters of
his family name. In Paris he studied medicine, and began to set forth
novel opinions which led him into conflict with other members of the
faculty. In one of his treatises he is said to have suggested the theory
of the circulation of the blood. In 1540 he went to Vienne and published
anonymously his well-known work _De Restitutione Christianismi_. This
book, when its authorship became known, brought upon him the charge of
heresy, and he was cast into prison. Powerful friends enabled him to
escape, and his enemies were obliged to content themselves with burning
his effigy and several copies of his books in the market-place at
Vienne. Servetus determined to fly to Naples, but was obliged to pass
through Geneva, where at the instigation of the great Reformer Calvin he
was seized and cast into prison. It is unnecessary to follow the course
of Servetus' ill-fated history, the bitter hostility of Calvin, the
delays, the trials and colloquies. At length he was condemned, and the
religious world shuddered at the thought of seeing the pile lighted by
a champion of the Reformation and religious freedom. Loud and awful
shrieks were heard in the prison when the tidings of his sentence were
conveyed to Servetus. Soon the fatal staff was broken over his head as a
sign of his condemnation, and on the Champel Hill, outside the gates of
Geneva, the last tragic scene took place. With his brow adorned with a
crown of straw sprinkled with brimstone, his Fatal Books at his side,
chained to a low seat, and surrounded by piles of blazing faggots, the
newness and moisture of which added greatly to his torture, in piteous
agony Servetus breathed his last, a sad spectacle of crime wrought in
religion's name, a fearful example of how great woes an author may
bring upon himself by his arrogance and self-sufficiency. The errors of
Servetus were deplorable, but the vindictive cruelty of his foes creates
sympathy for the victim of their rage, and Calvin's memory is ever
stained by his base conduct to his former friend.
The name of Sebastian Edzardt is not so well known. He was educated at
Würtemberg, and when Frederick I. of Prussia conceived the desire of
uniting the various reformed bodies with the Lutherans, he published
a work _De causis et natura unionis_, and a treatise _Ad Calvanianorum
Pelagianisinum_. In this book he charged the Calvinists with the
Pelagian heresy--a charge which they were accustomed to bring against
the Lutherans. It was written partly against a book of John Winckler,
_Arcanum Regium de conciliandis religionibus subditorum diffidentibus_,
published in 1703 in support of the King's designs. In the same year he
published _Impietas cohortis fanatica, expropriis Speneri, Rechenbergii,
Petersenii, Thomasii, Arnoldi, Schutzii, Boehmeri, aliorumque
fanaticorum scriptis, plusquam apodictis argumentis, ostensa. Hamburgi,
Koenig, 1703, in-4_. This work was suppressed by order of the senate
of Hamburg. Frederick was enraged at Edzardt's opposition to his plans,
ordered his first book to be burnt, and forbade any one to reply to it.
Nor was our author more successful in his other work, _Kurtzer Entwurff
der Einigkeit der Evangelisch-Lutherischen und Reformirten im Grunde des
Glaubens: von dieser Vereinigung eigentlicher Natur und Beschaffenheit_,
wherein he treated of various systems of theology. This too was publicly
burnt, but of the fate of its author I have no further particulars.
The last of the great schoolmen, William of Ockham, called the
"Invincible Doctor," suffered imprisonment and exile on account of his
works. He was born at Ockham in Surrey in 1280, and, after studying at
Oxford, went to the University of Paris. He lived in stirring times,
and took a prominent part in the great controversies which agitated
the fourteenth century. Pope John XXII. ruled at Avignon, a shameless
truckster in ecclesiastical merchandise, a violent oppressor of his
subjects, yet obliged by force of circumstances to be a mere subject of
the King of France. The Emperor Ludwig IV. ruled in Germany in spite of
the excommunication pronounced against him by the Pope. Many voices were
raised in support of Louis denouncing the assumptions of the occupant
of the Papal See. Marcilius of Padua wrote his famous _Defensor Pacis_
against Papal pretensions, and our author, William of Ockham, issued
his still more famous _Defence of Poverty_, which startled the whole of
Christendom by its vigorous onslaught on the vices of the Papacy and the
assumptions of Pope John. The latter ordered two bishops to examine the
work, and the "Invincible Doctor" was cast into prison at Avignon. He
would certainly have been slain, had he not contrived to effect his
escape, and taken refuge at the court of the German emperor, to whom he
addressed the words, "_Tu me defendas gladio, ego te defendam calamo_."
There he lived and wrote, condemned by the Pope, disowned by his order,
the Franciscans, threatened daily with sentences of heresy, deprivation,
and imprisonment; but for them he cared not, and fearlessly pursued his
course, becoming the acknowledged leader of the reforming tendencies
of the age, and preparing the material for that blaze of light which
astonished the world in the sixteenth century. His works have never been
collected, and are very scarce, being preserved with great care in
some of the chief libraries of Europe. The scholastic philosophy of
the fourteenth century, the disputes between the Nominalists and the
Realists, in which he took the part of the former, the principle
that "entities are not to be multiplied except by necessity," or the
"hypostatic existence of abstractions," have ceased to create any very
keen interest in the minds of readers. But how bitterly the war of words
was waged in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries! And it was not
only a war of words; one who witnessed the contests wrote that "when the
contending parties had exhausted their stock of verbal abuse, they
often came to blows; and it was not uncommon in their quarrels about
_universals_, to see the combatants engaged not only with their fists,
but with clubs and swords, so that many have been wounded and some
killed." These controversies have passed away, upon which, says John of
Salisbury, more time had been wasted than the Caesars had employed in
making themselves masters of the world; and it is unnecessary here to
revive them. Ockham's principal works are: _Quaestiones et decisiones
in quatuor libros sententiarum cum centilogio theologico_ (Lyons, 1495),
[Footnote: I have met with a copy of this work amongst the incunabula
in the possession of M. Olschki, of Venice. The printer's name is John
Trechsel, who is described as _vir hujus artis solertissimus_.] _Summa
logicae_ (Paris, 1483), _Quodlibeta_ (Paris, 1487), _Super potestate
summi pontifia_ (1496). He died at Munich in 1343.
The _Introductio ad Theologiam_ of the famous Abélard, another
schoolman, was fatal to him. Abélard's name is more generally known on
account of the golden haze of romance which surrounded him and the fair
Heloise; and their loving letters have been often read and mourned over
by thousands who have never heard of his theological writings. At
one time the famous Canon of Notre Dame at Paris had an enthusiastic
following; thousands flocked to his lectures from every country; his
popularity was enormous. He combated the abuses of the age and the
degeneracy of some of the clergy, and astonished and enraged many by the
boldness of his speech and the novelty of his opinions. His views with
regard to the doctrine of the Trinity expressed in his _Introductio_
(Traité de la Trinité) were made the subject of a charge against him,
and certainly they cannot be easily distinguished from Sabellianism. The
qualities or attributes of the Godhead, power, wisdom, goodness, were
stated to be the three Persons. The Son of God was not incarnate to
deliver us, but only to instruct us by His discourses and example. Jesus
Christ, God and Man, is not one of the Persons in the Trinity, and a man
is not properly called God. He did not descend into hell. Such were
some of the errors with which Abélard was reproached. Whether they were
actually contained in his writings, it is not so evident. We have only
fragments of Abélard's writings to judge from, which have been collected
by M. Cousin--_Ouvrages inédits d'Abélard_--and therefore cannot speak
with certain knowledge of his opinions. At least they were judged to
be blasphemous and heretical by the Council of Soissons, when he was
condemned to commit his books to the flames and to retire to the Convent
of St. Denys. Some years later, when he had recovered from the horrible
mutilation to which he had been subjected by the uncle of Heloise, and
his mind had acquired its usual strength, we find him at Paris, again
attracting crowds by his brilliant lectures, and pouring forth books,
and alas! another fatal one, _Sic et Non_, [Footnote: Petri Abelardi
_Sic et Non_ (Marburgi, Sumptibus Librariae; Academy Elwertianae, 1851).
The best edition of Abélard's letters is _P. Abaelardi et Heloisae
conjugis ejus Epistolae, ab erroribus purgatae et cum codd. MSS.
collatae cura Richardi Rawlinson, Londini, 1718, in-8_. There is also
an edition published in Paris in 1616, 4to, _Petri Abelardi et Heloisae
conjugis ejus, opera cum praefatione apologetica Franc. Antboësii, et
Censura doctorum parisiensium; ex editione Andreae Quercetani (André
Duchesne)_.] which asked one hundred and fifty-eight questions on
all kinds of subjects. The famous champion of orthodoxy, St. Bernard,
examined the book, and at the Council of Sens in 1140 obtained a verdict
against its author. He said that poor Abélard was an infernal dragon who
persecuted the Church, that Arius, Pelagius, and Nestorius were not more
dangerous, as Abélard united all these monsters in his own person, and
that he was a persecutor of the faith and the precursor of Antichrist.
These words of the celebrated Abbot of Clairvaux are more creditable
to his zeal than to his charity. Abélard's disciple Arnold of Brescia
attended him at the Council, and shared in the condemnations which
St. Bernard so freely bestowed. Arnold's stormy and eventful life as a
religious and political reformer was ended at Rome in 1155, where he was
strangled and burnt by order of the Emperor Frederick, his ashes being
cast into the Tiber lest they should be venerated as relics by his
followers. St. Bernard described him as a man having the head of a dove
and the tail of a scorpion. Abélard was condemned to perpetual silence,
and found a last refuge in the monastery of Cluny. Side by side in the
graveyard of the Paraclete Convent the bodies of Abélard and Heloise
lie, whose earthly lives, though lighted by love and cheered by
religion, were clouded with overmuch sorrow, and await the time when all
theological questions will be solved and doubts and difficulties raised
by earthly mists and human frailties will be swept away, and we shall
"know even as also we are known."