Both when it is new moon and full moon they call a council after a
sacrifice. To this all from twenty years upward are admitted, and each
one is asked separately to say what is wanting in the State, and which
of the magistrates have discharged their duties rightly and which
wrongly. Then after eight days all the magistrates assemble, to wit, Hoh
first, and with him Power, Wisdom, and Love. Each one of the three
last has three magistrates under him, making in all thirteen, and they
consider the affairs of the arts pertaining to each one of them: Power,
of war; Wisdom, of the sciences; Love, of food, clothing, education,
and breeding. The masters of all the bands, who are captains of tens, of
fifties, of hundreds, also assemble, the women first and then the men.
They argue about those things which are for the welfare of the State,
and they choose the magistrates from among those who have already been
named in the great Council. In this manner they assemble daily, Hoh and
his three princes, and they correct, confirm, and execute the matters
passing to them, as decisions in the elections; other necessary
questions they provide of themselves. They do not use lots unless when
they are altogether doubtful how to decide. The eight magistrates under
Hoh, Power, Wisdom, and Love are changed according to the wish of
the people, but the first four are never changed, unless they, taking
counsel with themselves, give up the dignity of one to another, whom
among them they know to be wiser, more renowned, and more nearly
perfect. And then they are obedient and honorable, since they yield
willingly to the wiser man and are taught by him. This, however, rarely
happens. The principals of the sciences, except Metaphysic, who is Hoh
himself, and is, as it were, the architect of all science, having rule
over all, are attached to Wisdom. Hoh is ashamed to be ignorant of any
possible thing. Under Wisdom therefore are Grammar, Logic, Physics,
Medicine, Astrology, Astronomy, Geometry, Cosmography, Music,
Perspective, Arithmetic, Poetry, Rhetoric, Painting, Sculpture. Under
the triumvir Love are Breeding, Agriculture, Education, Medicine,
Clothing, Pasturage, Coining.
G.M. What about their judges?
Capt. This is the point I was just thinking of explaining. Everyone
is judged by the first master of his trade, and thus all the head
artificers are judges. They punish with exile, with flogging, with
blame, with deprivation of the common table, with exclusion from the
church and from the company of women. When there is a case in which
great injury has been done, it is punished with death, and they repay
an eye with an eye, a nose for a nose, a tooth for a tooth, and so
on, according to the law of retaliation. If the offence is wilful the
Council decides. When there is strife and it takes place undesignedly,
the sentence is mitigated; nevertheless, not by the judge but by the
triumvirate, from whom even it may be referred to Hoh, not on account of
justice but of mercy, for Hoh is able to pardon. They have no prisons,
except one tower for shutting up rebellious enemies, and there is no
written statement of a case, which we commonly call a lawsuit. But the
accusation and witnesses are produced in the presence of the judge
and Power; the accused person makes his defence, and he is immediately
acquitted or condemned by the judge; and if he appeals to the
triumvirate, on the following day he is acquitted or condemned. On the
third day he is dismissed through the mercy and clemency of Hoh, or
receives the inviolable rigor of his sentence. An accused person is
reconciled to his accuser and to his witnesses, as it were, with the
medicine of his complaint, that is, with embracing and kissing.
No one is killed or stoned unless by the hands of the people, the
accuser and the witnesses beginning first. For they have no executioners
and lictors, lest the State should sink into ruin. The choice of death
is given to the rest of the people, who enclose the lifeless remains in
little bags and burn them by the application of fire, while exhorters
are present for the purpose of advising concerning a good death.
Nevertheless, the whole nation laments and beseeches God that his anger
may be appeased, being in grief that it should, as it were, have to cut
off a rotten member of the State. Certain officers talk to and convince
the accused man by means of arguments until he himself acquiesces in
the sentence of death passed upon him, or else he does not die. But if a
crime has been committed against the liberty of the republic, or against
God, or against the supreme magistrates, there is immediate censure
without pity. These only are punished with death. He who is about to die
is compelled to state in the presence of the people and with religious
scrupulousness the reasons for which he does not deserve death, and also
the sins of the others who ought to die instead of him, and further the
mistakes of the magistrates. If, moreover, it should seem right to the
person thus asserting, he must say why the accused ones are deserving of
less punishment than he. And if by his arguments he gains the victory
he is sent into exile, and appeases the State by means of prayers and
sacrifices and good life ensuing. They do not torture those named by the
accused person, but they warn them. Sins of frailty and ignorance are
punished only with blaming, and with compulsory continuation as learners
under the law and discipline of those sciences or arts against which
they have sinned. And all these things they have mutually among
themselves, since they seem to be in very truth members of the same
body, and one of another.
This further I would have you know, that if a transgressor, without
waiting to be accused, goes of his own accord before a magistrate,
accusing himself and seeking to make amends, that one is liberated from
the punishment of a secret crime, and since he has not been accused of
such a crime, his punishment is changed into another. They take special
care that no one should invent slander, and if this should happen they
meet the offence with the punishment of retaliation. Since they always
walk about and work in crowds, five witnesses are required for the
conviction of a transgressor. If the case is otherwise, after having
threatened him, he is released after he has sworn an oath as the
warrant of good conduct. Or if he is accused a second or third time, his
increased punishment rests on the testimony of three or two witnesses.
They have but few laws, and these short and plain, and written upon a
flat table and hanging to the doors of the temple, that is between
the columns. And on single columns can be seen the essences of things
described in the very terse style of Metaphysic--viz., the essences
of God, of the angels, of the world, of the stars, of man, of fate, of
virtue, all done with great wisdom. The definitions of all the virtues
are also delineated here, and here is the tribunal, where the judges of
all the virtues have their seat. The definition of a certain virtue is
written under that column where the judges for the aforesaid virtue sit,
and when a judge gives judgment he sits and speaks thus: O son, thou
hast sinned against this sacred definition of beneficence, or of
magnanimity, or of another virtue, as the case may be. And after
discussion the judge legally condemns him to the punishment for the
crime of which he is accused--viz., for injury, for despondency, for
pride, for ingratitude, for sloth, etc. But the sentences are certain
and true correctives, savoring more of clemency than of actual
punishment.
G.M. Now you ought to tell me about their priests, their sacrifices,
their religion, and their belief.
Capt. The chief priest is Hoh, and it is the duty of all the superior
magistrates to pardon sins. Therefore the whole State by secret
confession, which we also use, tell their sins to the magistrates,
who at once purge their souls and teach those that are inimical to
the people. Then the sacred magistrates themselves confess their own
sinfulness to the three supreme chiefs, and together they confess the
faults of one another, though no special one is named, and they confess
especially the heavier faults and those harmful to the State. At length
the triumvirs confess their sinfulness to Hoh himself, who forthwith
recognizes the kinds of sins that are harmful to the State, and succors
with timely remedies. Then he offers sacrifices and prayers to God. And
before this he confesses the sins of the whole people, in the presence
of God, and publicly in the temple, above the altar, as often as it
had been necessary that the fault should be corrected. Nevertheless, no
transgressor is spoken of by his name. In this manner he absolves the
people by advising them that they should beware of sins of the aforesaid
kind. Afterward he offers sacrifice to God, that he should pardon the
State and absolve it of its sins, and to teach and defend it. Once in
every year the chief priests of each separate subordinate State confess
their sins in the presence of Hoh. Thus he is not ignorant of the
wrongdoings of the provinces, and forthwith he removes them with all
human and heavenly remedies.
Sacrifice is conducted after the following manner: Hoh asks the people
which one among them wishes to give himself as a sacrifice to God for
the sake of his fellows. He is then placed upon the fourth table, with
ceremonies and the offering up of prayers: the table is hung up in
a wonderful manner by means of four ropes passing through four cords
attached to firm pulley-blocks in the small dome of the temple. This
done they cry to the God of mercy, that he may accept the offering, not
of a beast as among the heathen, but of a human being. Then Hoh orders
the ropes to be drawn and the sacrifice is pulled up above to the centre
of the small dome, and there it dedicates itself with the most fervent
supplications. Food is given to it through a window by the priests, who
live around the dome, but it is allowed a very little to eat, until it
has atoned for the sins of the State. There with prayer and fasting he
cries to the God of heaven that he might accept its willing offering.
And after twenty or thirty days, the anger of God being appeased, the
sacrifice becomes a priest, or sometimes, though rarely, returns below
by means of the outer way for the priests. Ever after, this man is
treated with great benevolence and much honor, for the reason that he
offered himself unto death for the sake of his country. But God does not
require death.
The priests above twenty-four years of age offer praises from their
places in the top of the temple. This they do in the middle of the
night, at noon, in the morning and in the evening, to wit, four times a
day they sing their chants in the presence of God. It is also their work
to observe the stars and to note with the astrolabe their motions and
influences upon human things, and to find out their powers. Thus they
know in what part of the earth any change has been or will be, and at
what time it has taken place, and they send to find whether the matter
be as they have it. They make a note of predictions, true and false,
so that they may be able from experience to predict most correctly. The
priests, moreover, determine the hours for breeding and the days for
sowing, reaping, and gathering the vintage, and are, as it were, the
ambassadors and intercessors and connection between God and man. And it
is from among them mostly that Hoh is elected. They write very learned
treatises and search into the sciences. Below they never descend, unless
for their dinner and supper, so that the essence of their heads do not
descend to the stomachs and liver. Only very seldom, and that as a cure
for the ills of solitude, do they have converse with women. On certain
days Hoh goes up to them and deliberates with them concerning the
matters which he has lately investigated for the benefit of the State
and all the nations of the world.
In the temple beneath, one priest always stands near the altar praying
for the people, and at the end of every hour another succeeds him, just
as we are accustomed in solemn prayer to change every fourth hour. And
this method of supplication they call perpetual prayer. After a meal
they return thanks to God. Then they sing the deeds of the Christian,
Jewish, and Gentile heroes, and of those of all other nations, and this
is very delightful to them. Forsooth, no one is envious of another.
They sing a hymn to Love, one to Wisdom, and one each to all the other
virtues, and this they do under the direction of the ruler of each
virtue. Each one takes the woman he loves most, and they dance for
exercise with propriety and stateliness under the peristyles. The women
wear their long hair all twisted together and collected into one knot on
the crown of the head, but in rolling it they leave one curl. The men,
however, have one curl only and the rest of their hair around the head
is shaven off. Further, they wear a slight covering, and above this a
round hat a little larger than the size of their head. In the fields
they use caps, but at home each one wears a biretta, white, red, or
another color according to his trade or occupation. Moreover, the
magistrates use grander and more imposing-looking coverings for the
head.
They hold great festivities when the sun enters the four cardinal points
of the heavens, that is, when he enters Cancer, Libra, Capricorn, and
Aries. On these occasions they have very learned, splendid, and, as it
were, comic performances. They celebrate also every full and every new
moon with a festival, as also they do the anniversaries of the founding
of the city, and of the days when they have won victories or done any
other great achievement. The celebrations take place with the music of
female voices, with the noise of trumpets and drums, and the firing of
salutations. The poets sing the praises of the most renowned leaders
and the victories. Nevertheless, if any of them should deceive even
by disparaging a foreign hero, he is punished. No one can exercise the
function of a poet who invents that which is not true, and a license
like this they think to be a pest of our world, for the reason that it
puts a premium upon virtue and often assigns it to unworthy persons,
either from fear of flattery, or ambition, or avarice.
For the praise of no one is a statue erected until after his death; but
while he is alive, who has found out new arts and very useful secrets,
or who has rendered great service to the State either at home or on the
battle-field, his name is written in the book of heroes. They do not
bury dead bodies, but burn them, so that a plague may not arise from
them, and so that they may be converted into fire, a very noble and
powerful thing, which has its coming from the sun and returns to it. And
for the above reasons no chance is given for idolatry. The statues and
pictures of the heroes, however, are there, and the splendid women set
apart to become mothers often look at them. Prayers are made from the
State to the four horizontal corners of the world--in the morning to the
rising sun, then to the setting sun, then to the south, and lastly
to the north; and in the contrary order in the evening, first to the
setting sun, to the rising sun, to the north, and at length to the
south. They repeat but one prayer, which asks for health of body and of
mind, and happiness for themselves and all people, and they conclude it
with the petition "As it seems best to God." The public prayer for all
is long, and it is poured forth to heaven. For this reason the altar is
round and is divided crosswise by ways at right angles to one another.
By these ways Hoh enters after he has repeated the four prayers, and he
prays looking up to heaven. And then a great mystery is seen by them.
The priestly vestments are of a beauty and meaning like to those of
Aaron. They resemble nature and they surpass Art.
They divide the seasons according to the revolution of the sun, and not
of the stars, and they observe yearly by how much time the one precedes
the other. They hold that the sun approaches nearer and nearer, and
therefore by ever-lessening circles reaches the tropics and the equator
every year a little sooner. They measure months by the course of the
moon, years by that of the sun. They praise Ptolemy, admire Copernicus,
but place Aristarchus and Philolaus before him. They take great pains in
endeavoring to understand the construction of the world, and whether or
not it will perish, and at what time. They believe that the true oracle
of Jesus Christ is by the signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the
stars, which signs do not thus appear to many of us foolish ones.
Therefore they wait for the renewing of the age, and perchance for its
end.
They say that it is very doubtful whether the world was made from
nothing, or from the ruins of other worlds, or from chaos, but they
certainly think that it was made, and did not exist from eternity.
Therefore they disbelieve in Aristotle, whom they consider a logican and
not a philosopher. From analogies, they can draw many arguments against
the eternity of the world. The sun and the stars they, so to speak,
regard as the living representatives and signs of God, as the temples
and holy living altars, and they honor but do not worship them. Beyond
all other things they venerate the sun, but they consider no created
thing worthy the adoration of worship. This they give to God alone, and
thus they serve Him, that they may not come into the power of a tyrant
and fall into misery by undergoing punishment by creatures of revenge.
They contemplate and know God under the image of the Sun, and they call
it the sign of God, His face and living image, by means of which light,
heat, life, and the making of all things good and bad proceed. Therefore
they have built an altar like to the sun in shape, and the priests
praise God in the sun and in the stars, as it were His altars, and in
the heavens, His temple as it were; and they pray to good angels, who
are, so to speak, the intercessors living in the stars, their strong
abodes. For God long since set signs of their beauty in heaven, and of
His glory in the sun. They say there is but one heaven, and that the
planets move and rise of themselves when they approach the sun or are in
conjunction with it.
They assert two principles of the physics of things below, namely, that
the sun is the father, and the earth the mother; the air is an impure
part of the heavens; all fire is derived from the sun. The sea is the
sweat of earth, or the fluid of earth combusted, and fused within its
bowels, but is the bond of union between air and earth, as the blood is
of the spirit and flesh of animals. The world is a great animal, and we
live within it as worms live within us. Therefore we do not belong to
the system of stars, sun, and earth, but to God only; for in respect
to them which seek only to amplify themselves, we are born and live by
chance; but in respect to God, whose instruments we are, we are formed
by prescience and design, and for a high end. Therefore we are bound to
no father but God, and receive all things from Him. They hold as beyond
question the immortality of souls, and that these associate with good
angels after death, or with bad angels, according as they have likened
themselves in this life to either. For all things seek their like. They
differ little from us as to places of reward and punishment. They are in
doubt whether there are other worlds beyond ours, and account it madness
to say there is nothing. Nonentity is incompatible with the infinite
entity of God. They lay down two principles of metaphysics, entity which
is the highest God, and nothingness which is the defect of entity. Evil
and sin come of the propensity to nothingness; the sin having its cause
not efficient, but in deficiency. Deficiency is, they say, of power,
wisdom, or will. Sin they place in the last of these three, because he
who knows and has the power to do good is bound also to have the will,
for will arises out of them. They worship God in trinity, saying God is
the Supreme Power, whence proceeds the highest Wisdom, which is the same
with God, and from these comes Love, which is both power and wisdom; but
they do not distinguish persons by name, as in our Christian law, which
has not been revealed to them. This religion, when its abuses have been
removed, will be the future mistress of the world, as great theologians
teach and hope. Therefore Spain found the New World (though its first
discoverer, Columbus, greatest of heroes, was a Genoese), that all
nations should be gathered under one law. We know not what we do, but
God knows, whose instruments we are. They sought new regions for lust of
gold and riches, but God works to a higher end. The sun strives to burn
up the earth, not to produce plants and men, but God guides the battle
to great issues. His the praise, to Him the glory!
G.M. Oh, if you knew what our astrologers say of the coming age, and of
our age, that has in it more history within 100 years than all the world
had in 4,000 years before! of the wonderful inventions of printing and
guns, and the use of the magnet, and how it all comes of Mercury, Mars,
the Moon, and the Scorpion!
Capt. Ah, well! God gives all in His good time. They astrologize too
much.
(1) A pace was 1-9/25 yard, 1,000 paces making a mile
End of Project Gutenberg's The City of the Sun, by Tommaso Campanella