"The sacrifice of a whole burnt-offering, where nothing was
kept back for the enjoyment of men," was called a holocaust by
the ancient Greeks.
_G. F. Schömann,
Antiquities of Greece: The State,
page 60._
----------HOLSTEIN: Start--------
HOLSTEIN: A. D. 1848-1866.
The Schleswig-Holstein question.
See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (DENMARK): A. D. 1848-1862;
and GERMANY: A. D. 1861-1866.
HOLSTEIN: A. D. 1866.
Annexation to Prussia.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1866.
----------HOLSTEIN: End--------
HOLY ALLIANCE, The.
"The document called the Holy Alliance was originally sketched
at Paris [during the occupation of the French capital by the
Allies, after Waterloo, in 1815], in the French language, by
[the Czar] Alexander's own hand, after a long and animated
conversation with Madame de Krüdener and Bergasse. It was
suggested, perhaps, by words spoken by the king of Prussia
after the battle of Bautzen, but was chiefly the result of the
influence, upon a mind always inclined to religious ideas, of
the conversation of Madame de Krüdener and of the philosopher
Bader, the admirer of Tauler, Jacob Boehm, and St. Martin, the
deadly foe of Kant and his successors in Germany. … The Czar
dreamt of founding a Communion of states, bound together by
the first principles of Christianity. … The king of Prussia
signed the paper from motives of friendship for the Czar,
without attaching much importance to what he did. … The
emperor of Austria, the least sentimental of mankind, at first
declined to sign, 'because,' he said, 'if the secret is a
political one, I must tell it, to Metternich; if it is a
religious one, I must tell it to my confessor.' Metternich
accordingly was told; and observed scornfully, 'C'est du
verbiage.'
{1658}
Indeed no one of the princes who adhered to the Holy Alliance,
with the single exception of Alexander himself, ever took it
seriously. It was doomed from its birth. As M. de Bernhardi
observes: 'It sank without leaving a trace in the stream of
events, never became a reality, and never had the slightest
real importance.' What had real importance was the continuance
of the good understanding between the powers who had put down
Napoleon, and their common fear of France. This good
understanding and that common fear led to the treaty of the
20th November 1815, by which it was stipulated that the Powers
should, from time to time, hold Congresses with a view to
regulating the welfare of nations and the peace of Europe. It
was these Congresses, and not the Holy Alliance, which kept up
close relations between the rulers of Russia, Prussia, and
Austria, and enabled them, when the liberal movement on the
Continent, which followed the conclusion of the war, began to
be alarming, to take measures for a combined system of
repression."
_M. E. G. Duff,
Studies in European Polities,
chapter 2._
The text of the Treaty is as follows:
"In the name of the Most Holy and Indivisible Trinity: Holy
Alliance of Sovereigns of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Their
Majesties the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and the
Emperor of Russia, having, in consequence of the great events
which have marked the course of the three last years in
Europe, and especially of the blessings which it has pleased
Divine Providence to shower down upon those States which place
their confidence and their hope on it alone, acquired the
intimate conviction of the necessity of settling the steps to
be observed by the Powers, in their reciprocal relations, upon
the sublime truths which the Holy Religion of our Saviour
teaches; They solemnly declare that the present Act has no
other object than to publish, in the face of the whole world,
their fixed resolution, both in the administration of their
respective States, and in their political relations with every
other Government, to take for their sole guide the precepts of
that Holy Religion, namely, the precepts of Justice, Christian
Charity, and Peace, which, far from being applicable only to
private concerns, must have an immediate influence on the
councils of Princes, and guide all their steps, as being the
only means of consolidating human institutions and remedying
their imperfections. In consequence, their Majesties have
agreed on the following Articles:—
Art. I. Conformably to the words of the Holy Scriptures,
which command all men to consider each other as brethren,
the Three contracting Monarchs will remain united by the
bonds of a true and indissoluble fraternity, and
considering each other as fellow countrymen, they will, on
all occasions and in all places, lend each other aid and
assistance; and, regarding themselves towards their
subjects and armies as fathers of families, they will lead
them, in the same spirit of fraternity with which they are
animated, to protect Religion, Peace, and Justice.
Art II. In consequence, the sole principle of force,
whether between the said Governments or between their
Subjects, shall be that of doing each other reciprocal
service, and of testifying by unalterable good will the
mutual affection with which they ought to be animated, to
consider themselves all as members of one and the same
Christian nation; the three allied Princes looking on
themselves as merely delegated by Providence to govern
three branches of the One family, namely, Austria, Prussia,
and Russia, thus confessing that the Christian world, of
which they and their people form a part, has in reality no
other Sovereign than Him to whom alone power really
belongs, because in Him alone are found all the treasures
of love, science, and infinite wisdom, that is to say, God,
our Divine Saviour, the Word of the Most High, the Word of
Life. Their Majesties consequently recommend to their
people, with the most tender solicitude, as the sole means
of enjoying that Peace which arises from a good conscience,
and which alone is durable, to strengthen themselves every
day more and more in the principles and exercise of the
duties which the Divine Saviour has taught to mankind.
Art. III. All the Powers who shall choose solemnly to avow
the sacred principles which have dictated the present Act,
and shall acknowledge how important it is for the happiness
of nations, too long agitated, that these truths should
henceforth exercise over the destinies of mankind all the
influence which belongs to them, will be received with
equal ardour and affection into this Holy Alliance. Done in
triplicate, and signed at Paris, the year of Grace 1815,
14/26th September."
"It is stated in 'Martens' Treaties' that the greater part of
the Christian Powers acceded to this Treaty. France acceded to
it in 1815; the Netherlands and Wurtemberg did so in 1816; and
Saxony, Switzerland, and the Hansa Towns in 1817. But neither
the Pope nor the Sultan were invited to accede."
_E. Hertslet,
Map of Europe by Treaty,
volume 1, number 36, pages 317-319._
"The Treaty of the Holy Alliance was not graced with the name
of the Prince Regent [of Great Britain], but the Czar received
a letter declaring that his principles had the personal
approval of this great authority on religion and morality. The
Kings of Naples and Sardinia were the next to subscribe, and
in due time the names of the witty glutton, Louis XVIII., and
of the abject Ferdinand of Spain were added."
_C. A. Fyffe,
History of Modern Europe,
volume 2, chapter 1._
"Metternich, the worldly-wise, smiled at this manifesto as
'nothing more than a philanthropic aspiration clothed in a
religious garb.' He suspected that the evil-minded would
misinterpret and that the jokers would ridicule it, but none
knew better than he the flimsiness of diplomatic agreements,
and accordingly he consented to it. Christianity has had many
crimes committed in its name; the Holy Alliance made
Christianity the cloak under which the kings of Europe
conspired to perpetuate the helotage of their subjects.
Metternich found it all the easier to direct kings whose
common interest it was to uphold the paternal system therein
approved. He exerted his influence over each of them
separately; if the monarch were obdurate, he wheedled his
minister; if the minister were wary, he prejudiced the monarch
against him. Now by flattery, and now by specious argument, he
won his advantage. … Like a trickster at cards, he marked
every card in the pack and could always play the ace. … He
told the truth when he knew it would not be believed; he
prevaricated when he intended his falsehood should pass for
truth. This was diplomacy, these the 'Christian precepts' by
which one hundred and fifty millions of Europeans were
governed.
{1659}
In a society where everyone lies, falsehoods of equal cunning
nullify each other. Metternich took care that his should excel
in verisimilitude and in subtlety. It was an open battle of
craft; but his craft was as superior to that of his
competitors as a slow, undetectable poison is more often fatal
than the hasty stab of a bravo. He fished both with hooks and
nets; if one broke, the other held. … He was, we may affirm,
sincerely insincere; strongly attached to the Hapsburg
dynasty, and patriotic in so far as the aggrandizement of that
House corresponded with the interests of the Austrian State.
But the central figure in his perspective was always himself,
whom he regarded as the savior of a social order whose
preservation held back the world from chaos. … He spoke of
his mission as an 'apostolate.' … To resist all
change,—that was his policy; to keep the surface
smooth,—that was his peace. … He likened himself to a
spider, spinning a vast web. 'I begin to know the world well,'
he said, 'and I believe that the flies are eaten by the
spiders only because they die naturally so young that they
have no time to gain experience, and do not know what is the
nature of a spider's web.' How many flies he caught during his
forty years' spinning! but his success, he admitted, was due
quite as much to their blindness as to his cunning. … He
seemed to delight in royal conferences in order that he might
have the excitement of manipulating Alexander and Frederick
William; for his own Emperor, Francis, was as pliable as putty
in his hands. Such was Metternich, 'the most worldly, the most
dexterous, the most fortunate of politicians,' the embodiment
of that Old Régime strangely interpolated in the nineteenth
century. Knowing him, we shall know the nature of the
resistance which checked every patriotic impulse, every effort
towards progress in Italy, between 1815 and 1848. Few names
have been hated as his was hated, or feared as his was feared.
The Italians pictured to themselves a monster, a worse than
Herod, who gloated over human suffering, and spent his time in
inventing new tortures for his victims. He regarded them, and
all liberals, as natural enemies to the order in which he
flourished; and he had no more mercy for them than the Spanish
Inquisitors had for heretics."
_W. R. Thayer,
The Dawn of Italian Independence,
book 2, chapter 1 (volume 1)._
HOLY BROTHERHOOD, OR HERMANDAD, The.
Before the close of the 13th century, there first arose in
Spain "an anomalous institution peculiar to Castile, which
sought to secure the public tranquillity by means scarcely
compatible themselves with civil subordination. I refer to the
celebrated Hermandad, or Holy Brotherhood, as the association
was sometimes called,—a name familiar to most readers in the
lively fictions of Le Sage, though conveying there no very
adequate idea of the extraordinary functions which it assumed
at the period under review [13th-14th centuries]. Instead of a
regularly organized police, it then consisted of a
confederation of the principal cities, bound together by a
solemn league and covenant for the defence of their liberties
in seasons of civil anarchy. Its affairs were conducted by
deputies, who assembled at stated intervals for this purpose,
transacting their business under a common seal, enacting laws
which they were careful to transmit to the nobles and even the
sovereign himself, and enforcing their measures by an armed
force. … One hundred cities associated in the Hermandad of
1315. In that of 1295, were thirty-four. The knights and
inferior nobility frequently made part of the association. …
In one of [the articles of confederation] it is declared that
if any noble shall deprive a member of the association of his
property, and refuse restitution, his house shall be razed to
the ground. In another, that if any one, by command of the
king, shall attempt to collect an unlawful tax, he shall be
put to death on the spot." Under the government of Ferdinand
and Isabella, among the measures adopted for checking the
license and disorder which had become prevalent in Castile,
and restoring a more effective administration of justice, was
one for a reorganization of the Santa Hermandad. "The project
for the reorganization of this institution was introduced into
the cortes held, the year after Isabella's accession, at
Madrigal, 1476. … The new institution differed essentially
from the ancient hermandades, since, instead of being partial
in its extent, it was designed to embrace the whole kingdom;
and, instead of being directed, as had often been the case,
against the crown itself, it was set in motion at the
suggestion of the latter, and limited in its operation to the
maintenance of public order. The crimes reserved for its
jurisdiction were all violence or theft committed on the
highways or in the open country, and in cities by such
offenders as escaped into the country; house-breaking; rape;
and resistance of justice. … An annual contribution of
18,000 maravedis was assessed on every 100 vecinos or
householders, for the equipment and maintenance of a horseman,
whose duty it was to arrest offenders and enforce the sentence
of the law. On the flight of a criminal, the tocsins of the
villages through which he was supposed to have passed were
sounded, and the quadrilleros or officers of the brotherhood,
stationed on the different points, took up the pursuit with
such promptness as left little chance of escape. A court of
two alcaldes was established in every town containing thirty
families, for the trial of all crimes within the jurisdiction
of the hermandad; and an appeal lay from them in specified
cases to a supreme council. A general junta, composed of
deputies from the cities throughout the kingdom was annually
convened for the regulation of affairs, and their instructions
were transmitted to provincial juntas, who superintended the
execution of them. … Notwithstanding the popular
constitution of the hermandad, and the obvious advantages
attending its introduction at this juncture, it experienced so
decided an opposition from the nobility, who discerned the
check it was likely to impose on their authority, that it
required all the queen's address and perseverance to effect
its general adoption. … The important benefits resulting
from the institution of the hermandad secured its confirmation
by successive cortes, for the period of 22 years, in spite of
the repeated opposition of the aristocracy. At length, in
1498, the objects for which it was established having been
completely obtained, it was deemed advisable to relieve the
nation from the heavy charges which its maintenance imposed.
The great salaried officers were dismissed; a few subordinate
functionaries were retained for the administration of justice,
over whom the regular courts of criminal law possessed appellate
jurisdiction; and the magnificent apparatus of the Santa
Hermandad, stripped of all but the terrors of its name,
dwindled into an ordinary police, such as it has existed, with
various modifications of form, down to the present century."
_W. H. Prescott,
History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,
introduction, section 1, with foot-note,
and part 1, chapter 6._
{1660}