In order to form a just appreciation of what the Jewish quarters were like

in the mediæval towns, one must visit the _Ghetto_ of Rome or ancient

Prague. The latter place especially has, in all respects, preserved its

antique appearance. We must picture to ourselves a large enclosure of

wretched houses, irregularly built, divided by small streets with no

attempt at uniformity. The principal thoroughfare is lined with stalls, in

which are sold not only old clothes, furniture, and utensils, but also new

and glittering articles. The inhabitants of this enclosure can, without

crossing its limits, procure everything necessary to material life. This

quarter contains the old synagogue, a square building begrimed with the

dirt of ages, and so covered with dirt and moss that the stone of which it

is built is scarcely visible. The building, which is as mournful as a

prison, has only narrow loopholes by way of windows, and a door so low

that one must stoop to enter it. A dark passage leads to the interior,

into which air and light can scarcely penetrate. A few lamps contend with

the darkness, and lighted fires serve to modify a little the icy

temperature of this cellar. Here and there pillars seem to support a roof

which is too high and too darkened for the eye of the visitor to

distinguish. On the sides are dark and damp recesses, where women assist

at the celebration of worship, which is always carried on, according to

ancient custom, with much wailing and strange gestures of the body. The

book of the law which is in use is no less venerable than the edifice in

which it is contained. It appears that this synagogue has never undergone

the slightest repairs or changes for many centuries. The successive

generations who have prayed in this ancient temple rest under thousands

of sepulchral stones, in a cemetery which is of the same date as the

synagogue, and is about a league in circumference.

Paris has never possessed, properly speaking, a regular _Jewish quarter_;

it is true that the Israelites settled down in the neighbourhood of the

markets, and in certain narrow streets, which at some period or other took

the name of _Juiverie_ or _Vieille Juiverie (Old Jewry_); but they were

never distinct from the rest of the population; they only had a separate

cemetery, at the bottom or rather on the slope of the hill of

Sainte-Geneviève. On the other hand, most of the towns of France and of

Europe had their _Jewry_. In certain countries, the colonies of Jews

enjoyed a share of immunities and protections, thus rendering their life a

little less precarious, and their occupations of a rather more settled

character.

In Spain and in Portugal, the Jews, in consequence of their having been on

several occasions useful to the kings of those two countries, were allowed

to carry on their trade, and to engage in money speculations, outside

their own quarters; a few were elevated to positions of responsibility,

and some were even tolerated at court.

In the southern towns of France, which they enriched by commerce and

taxes, and where they formed considerable communities, the Jews enjoyed

the protection of the nobles. We find them in Languedoc and Provence

buying and selling property like Christians, a privilege which was not

permitted to them elsewhere: this is proved by charters of contracts made

during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which bear the signature of

certain Jews in Hebrew characters. On Papal lands, at Avignon, at

Carpentras, and at Cavaillon, they had _bailes_, or consuls of their

nation. The Jews of Rousillon during the Spanish rule (fifteenth century)

were governed by two syndics and a scribe, elected by the community. The

latter levied the taxes due to the King of Aragon. In Burgundy they

cultivated the vines, which was rather singular, for the Jews generally

preferred towns where they could form groups more compact, and more

capable of mutual assistance. The name of _Sabath_, given to a vineyard in

the neighbourhood of Mâcon, still points out the position of their

synagogue. The hamlet of _Mouys_, a dependency of the communes of Prissey,

owes its name to a rich Israelite, Moses, who had received that land as an

indemnity for money lent to the Count Gerfroy de Mâcon, which the latter

had been unable to repay. In Vienna, where the Israelites had a special

quarter, still called _the Jews'_

[Illustration: Fig. 358.--Jews taking the Blood from Christian Children,

for their Mystic Rites.--From a Pen-and-ink Drawing, illuminated, in the

Book of the Cabala of Abraham the Jew (Library of the Arsenal, Paris).]

_Square_, a special judge named by the duke was set over them. Exempted

from the city rates, they paid a special poil tax, and they contributed,

but on the same footing as Christian vassals, to extraordinary rates, war

taxes, and travelling expenses of the nobles, &c. This community even

became so rich that it eventually held mortgages on the greater part of

the houses of the town.

In Venice also, the Jews had their quarter--the _Giudecca_--which is still

one of the darkest in the town; but they did not much care about such

trifling inconveniences, as the republic allowed them to bank, that is, to

lend money at interest; and although they were driven out on several

occasions, they always found means to return and recommence their

operations. When they were authorised to establish themselves in the towns

of the Adriatic, their presence did not fail to annoy the Christian

merchants, whose rivals they were; but neither in Venice nor in the

Italian republics had they to fear court intrigues, nor the hatred of

corporations of trades, which were so powerful in France and in Germany.

It was in the north of Europe that the animosity against the Jews was

greatest. The Christian population continually threatened the Jewish

quarters, which public opinion pointed to as haunts and sinks of iniquity.

The Jews were believed to be much more amenable to the doctrines of the

Talmud than to the laws of Moses. However secret they may have kept their

learning, a portion of its tenets transpired, which was supposed to

inculcate the right to pillage and murder Christians; and it is to the

vague knowledge of these odious prescriptions of the Talmud that we must

attribute the readiness with which the most atrocious accusations against

the Jews were always welcomed.

Besides this, the public mind in those days of bigotry was naturally

filled with a deep antipathy against the Jewish deicides. When monks and

priests came annually in Holy week to relate from the pulpit to their

hearers the revolting details of the Passion, resentment was kindled in

the hearts of the Christians against the descendants of the judges and

executioners of the Saviour. And when, on going out of the churches,

excited by the sermons they had just heard, the faithful saw in pictures,

in the cemeteries, and elsewhere, representations of the mystery of the

death of our Saviour, in which the Jews played so odious a part, there was

scarcely a spectator who did not feel an increased hatred against the

condemned race. Hence it was that in many towns, even when the authorities

did not compel them to do so, the Israelites found it prudent to shut

themselves up in their own quarter, and even in their own houses, during

the whole of Passion week; for, in consequence of the public feeling

roused during those days of mourning and penance, a false rumour was quite

sufficient to give the people a pretext for offering violence to the Jews.

In fact, from the earliest days of Christianity, a certain number of

accusations were always being made, sometimes in one country, sometimes in

another, against the Israelites, which always ended in bringing down the

same misfortunes on their heads. The most common, and most easily credited

report, was that which attributed to them the murder of some Christian

child, said to be sacrificed in Passion week in token of their hatred of

Christ; and in the event of this terrible accusation being once uttered,

and maintained by popular opinion, it never failed to spread with

remarkable swiftness. In such cases, popular fury, not being on all

occasions satisfied with the tardiness of judicial forms, vented itself

upon the first Jews who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of their

enemies. As soon as the disturbance was heard the Jewish quarter was

closed; fathers and mothers barricaded themselves in with their children,

concealed whatever riches they possessed, and listened tremblingly to the

clamour of the multitude which was about to besiege them.

[Illustration: Fig. 359.--Secret Meeting of the Jews at the Rabbi's

House.--Fac-simile of a Miniature of the "Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine,"

Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century, in the National Library of Paris.]

In 1255, in Lincoln, the report was suddenly spread that a child of the

name of Hughes had been enticed into the Jewish quarter, and there

scourged, crucified, and pierced with lances, in the presence of all the

Israelites of the district, who were convoked and assembled to take part

in this horrible barbarity. The King and Queen of England, on their return

from a journey to Scotland, arrived in Lincoln at the very time when the

inhabitants were so much agitated by this mysterious announcement. The

people called for vengeance. An order was issued to the bailiffs and

officers of the King to deliver the murderer into the hands of justice,

and the quarter in which the Jews had shut themselves up, so as to avoid

the public animosity, was immediately invaded by armed men. The rabbi, in

whose house the child was supposed to have been tortured, was seized, and

at once condemned to be tied to the tail of a horse, and dragged through

the streets of the town. After this, his mangled body, which was only half

dead, was hung (Fig. 359). Many of the Jews ran away and hid themselves in

all parts of the kingdom, and those who had the misfortune to be caught

were thrown into chains and led to London. Orders were given in the

provinces to imprison all the Israelites who were accused or even

suspected of having taken any part, whether actively or indirectly, in the

murder of the Lincoln child; and suspicion made rapid strides in those

days. In a short space of time, eighteen Israelites in London shared the

fate of the rabbi of their community in Lincoln. Some Dominican monks, who

were charitable and courageous enough to interfere in favour of the

wretched prisoners, brought down odium on their own heads, and were

accused of having allowed themselves to be corrupted by the money of the

Jews. Seventy-one prisoners were retained in the dungeons of London, and

seemed inevitably fated to die, when the king's brother, Richard, came to

their aid, by asserting his right over all the Jews of the kingdom--a

right which the King had pledged to him for a loan of 5,000 silver marks.

The unfortunate prisoners were therefore saved, thanks to Richard's desire

to protect his securities. History does not tell what their liberty cost

them; but we must hope that a sense of justice alone guided the English

prince, and that the Jews found other means besides money by which to show

their gratitude.

There is scarcely a country in Europe which cannot recount similar tales.

In 1171, we find the murder of a child at Orleans, or Blois, causing

capital punishment to be inflicted on several Jews. Imputations of this

horrible character were continually renewed during the Middle Ages, and

were of very ancient origin; for we hear of them in the times of Honorius

and Theodosius the younger; we find them reproduced with equal vehemence

in 1475 at Trent, where a furious mob was excited against the Jews, who

were accused of having destroyed a child twenty-nine months old named

Simon. The tale of the martyrdom of this child was circulated widely, and

woodcut representations of it were freely distributed, which necessarily

increased, especially in Germany, the horror which was aroused in the

minds of Christians against the accursed nation (Fig. 361).

[Illustration: Fig. 360.--The Infant Richard crucified by the Jews, at

Pontoise.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut, with Figures by Wohlgemuth, in the

"Liber Chronicarum Mundi:" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493.]

[Illustration: Fig. 361.--Martyrdom of Simon at Trent.--Fac-simile,

reduced, of a Woodcut of Wohlgemuth, in the "Liber Chronicarum Mundi:"

large folio, Nuremberg, 1493.]

The Jews gave cause for other accusations calculated to keep up this

hatred; such as the desecration of the consecrated host, the mutilation of

the crucifix. Tradition informs us of a miracle which took place in Paris

in 1290, in the Rue des Jardins, when a Jew dared to mutilate and boil a

consecrated host. This miracle was commemorated by the erection of a

chapel on the spot, which was afterwards replaced by the church and

convent of the Billettes. In 1370, the people of Brussels were startled in

consequence of the statements of a Jewess, who accused her co-religionists

of having made her carry a pyx full of stolen hosts to the Jews of

Cologne, for the purpose of submitting them to the most horrible

profanations. The woman added, that the Jews having pierced these hosts

with sticks and knives, such a quantity of blood poured from them that the

culprits were struck with terror, and concealed themselves in their

quarter. The Jews were all imprisoned, tortured, and burnt alive (Fig.

362). In order to perpetuate the memory of the miracle of the bleeding

hosts, an annual procession took place, which was the origin of the great

kermesse, or annual fair.

In the event of any unforeseen misfortune, or any great catastrophe

occurring amongst Christians, the odium was frequently cast on the Jews.

If the Crusaders met with reverses in Asia, fanatics formed themselves

into bands, who, under the name of _Pastoureaux_, spread over the country,

killing and robbing not only the Jews, but many Christians also. In the

event of any general sickness, and especially during the prevalence of

epidemics, the Jews were accused of having poisoned the water of fountains

and pits, and the people massacred them in consequence. Thousands perished

in this way when the black plague made ravages in Europe in the fourteenth

century. The sovereigns, who were tardy in suppressing these sanguinary

proceedings, never thought of indemnifying the Jewish families which so

unjustly suffered.

[Illustration: Fig. 362.--The Jews of Cologne burnt alive.--From a Woodcut

in the "Liber Chronicarum Mundi:" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493.]

In fact, it was then most religiously believed that, by despising and

holding the Jewish nation under the yoke, banished as it was from Judæa

for the murder of Jesus Christ, the will of the Almighty was being carried

out, so much so that the greater number of kings and princes looked upon

themselves as absolute masters over the Jews who lived under their

protection. All feudal lords spoke with scorn of _their Jews_; they

allowed them to establish themselves on their lands, but on the condition

that as they became the subjects and property of their lord, the latter

should draw his best income from them.

We have shown by an instance borrowed from the history of England that the

Jews were often mortgaged by the kings like land. This was not all, for

the Jews who inhabited Great Britain during the reign of Henry III., in

the middle of the thirteenth century, were not only obliged to

acknowledge, by voluntarily contributing large sums of money, the service

the King's brother had rendered them in clearing them from the imputation

of having had any participation in the murder of the child Richard, but

the loan on mortgage, for which they were the material and passive

security, became the cause of odious extortions from them. The King had

pledged them to the Earl of Cornwall for 5,000 marks, but they themselves

had to repay the royal loan by means of enormous taxes. When they had

succeeded in cancelling the King's debt to his brother, that necessitous

monarch again mortgaged them, but on this occasion to his son Edward. Soon

after, the son having rebelled against his father, the latter took back

his Jews, and having assembled six elders from each of their communities,

he told them that he required 20,000 silver marks, and ordered them to pay

him that sum at two stated periods. The payments were rigorously exacted;

those who were behind-hand were imprisoned, and the debtor who was in

arrear for the second payment was sued for the whole sum. On the King's

death his successor continued the same system of tyranny against the Jews.

In 1279 they were charged with having issued counterfeit coin, and on this

vague or imaginary accusation two hundred and eighty men and women were

put to death in London alone. In the counties there were also numerous

executions, and many innocent persons were thrown into dungeons; and, at

last, in 1290 King Edward, who wished to enrich himself by taking

possession of their properties, banished the Jews from his kingdom. A

short time before this, the English people had offered to pay an annual

fine to the King on condition of his expelling the Jews from the country;

but the Jews outbid them, and thus obtained the repeal of the edict of

banishment. However, on this last occasion there was no mercy shown, and

the Jews, sixteen thousand in number, were expelled from England, and the

King seized upon their goods.

At the same period Philippe le Bel of France gave the example of this

system of persecuting the Jews, but, instead of confiscating all their

goods, he was satisfied with taking one-fifth; his subjects, therefore,

almost accused him of generosity.

[Illustration: Fig. 363.--Jewish Conspiracy in France.--From a Miniature

in the "Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine" (Imperial Library, Paris).]

The Jews often took the precaution of purchasing certain rights and

franchises from their sovereign or from the feudal lord under whose sway

they lived; but generally these were one-sided bargains, for not being

protected by common rights, and only forming a very small part of the

population, they could nowhere depend upon promises or privileges which

had been made to them, even though they had purchased them with their own

money.

To the uncertainty and annoyance of a life which was continually being

threatened, was added a number of vexatious and personal insults, even in

ordinary times, and when they enjoyed a kind of normal tolerance. They

were almost everywhere obliged to wear a visible mark on their dress,

such as a patch of gaudy colour attached to the shoulder or chest, in

order to prevent their being mistaken for Christians. By this or some

other means they were continually subject to insults from the people, and

only succeeded in ridding themselves of it by paying the most enormous

fines. Nothing was spared to humiliate and insult them. At Toulouse they

were forced to send a representative to the cathedral on every Good

Friday, that he might there publicly receive a box on the ears. At

Béziers, during Passion week, the mob assumed the right of attacking the

Jews' houses with stones. The Jews bought off this right in 1160 by paying

a certain sum to the Vicomte de Béziers, and by promising an annual

poll-tax to him and to his successors. A Jew, passing on the road of

Etampes, beneath the tower of Montlhéry, had to pay an obole; if he had in

his possession a Hebrew book, he paid four deniers; and, if he carried his

lamp with him, two oboles. At Châteauneuf-sur-Loire a Jew on passing had

to pay twelve deniers and a Jewess six. It has been said that there were

various ancient rates levied upon Jews, in which they were treated like

cattle, but this requires authentication. During the Carnival in Rome they

were forced to run in the lists, amidst the jeers of the populace. This

public outrage was stopped at a subsequent period by a tax of 300 écus,

which a deputation from the Ghetto presented on their knees to the

magistrates of the city, at the same time thanking them for their

protection.

When Pope Martin IV. arrived at the Council of Constance, in 1417, the

Jewish community, which was as numerous as it was powerful in that old

city, came in great state to present him with the book of the law (Fig.

364). The holy father received the Jews kindly, and prayed God to open

their eyes and bring them back into the bosom of his church. We know, too,

how charitable the popes were to the Jews.

In the face of the distressing position they occupied, it may be asked

what powerful motive induced the Jews to live amongst nations who almost

invariably treated them as enemies, and to remain at the mercy of

sovereigns whose sole object was to oppress, plunder, and subject them to

all kinds of vexations? To understand this it is sufficient to remember

that, in their peculiar aptness for earning and hoarding money, they

found, or at least hoped to find, a means of compensation whereby they

might be led to forget the servitude to which they were subjected.

There existed amongst them, and especially in the southern countries,

some very learned men, who devoted themselves principally to medicine; and

in order to avoid having to struggle against insuperable prejudice, they

were careful to disguise their nationality and religion in the exercise of

that art.

[Illustration: Fig. 364.--The Jewish Procession going to meet the Pope at

the Council of Constance, in 1417.--After a Miniature in the Manuscript

Chronicle of Ulrie de Reichental, in the Library of the Mansion-house of

Basle, in Switzerland.]

They pretended, in order not to arouse the suspicion of their patients, to

be practitioners from Lombardy or Spain, or even from Arabia; whether they

were really clever, or only made a pretence of being so, in an art which

was then very much a compound of quackery and imposture, it is difficult

to say, but they acquired wealth as well as renown in its practice. But

there was another science, to the study of which they applied themselves

with the utmost ardour and perseverance, and for which they possessed in a

marvellous degree the necessary qualities to insure success, and that

science was the science of finance. In matters having reference to the

recovering of arrears of taxes, to contracts for the sale of goods and

produce of industry, to turning a royalty to account, to making hazardous

commercial enterprises lucrative, or to the accumulating of large sums of

money for the use of sovereigns or poor nobles, the Jews were always at

hand, and might invariably be reckoned upon. They created capital, for

they always had funds to dispose of, even in the midst of the most

terrible public calamities, and, when all other means were exhausted, when

all expedients for filling empty purses had been resorted to without

success, the Jews were called in. Often, in consequence of the envy which

they excited from being known to possess hoards of gold, they were exposed

to many dangers, which they nevertheless faced, buoying themselves up with

the insatiable love of gain.

Few Christians in the Middle Ages were given to speculation, and they were

especially ignorant of financial matters, as demanding interest on loans

was almost always looked upon as usury, and, consequently, such dealings

were stigmatized as disgraceful. The Jews were far from sharing these

high-minded scruples, and they took advantage of the ignorance of

Christians by devoting themselves as much as possible to enterprises and

speculations, which were at all times the distinguishing occupation of

their race. For this reason we find the Jews, who were engaged in the

export trade from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, doing a most

excellent business, even in the commercial towns of the Mediterranean. We

can, to a certain extent, in speaking of the intercourse of the Jews with

the Christians of the Middle Ages, apply what Lady Montague remarked as

late as 1717, when comparing the Jews of Turkey with the Mussulmans: "The

former," she says, "have monopolized all the commerce of the empire,

thanks to the close ties which exist amongst them, and to the laziness and

want of industry of the Turks. No bargain is made without their

connivance. They are the physicians and stewards of all the nobility. It

is easy to conceive the unity which this gives to a nation which never

despises the smallest profits. They have found means of rendering

themselves so useful, that they are certain of protection at court,

whoever the ruling minister may be. Many of them are enormously rich, but

they are careful to make but little outward display, although living in

the greatest possible luxury."

[Illustration: Fig. 365.--Costume of an Italian Jew of the Fourteenth

Century.--From a Painting by Sano di Pietro, preserved in the Academy of

the Fine Arts, at Sienna.]

[Illustration: The Jews' Passover.

Fac-simile of a miniature from a missel of fifteenth century ornamented

with paintings of the School of Van Eyck. Bibl. de l'Arsenal, Th. lat., no

199.]

The condition of the Jews in the East was never so precarious nor so

difficult as it was in the West. From the Councils of Paris, in 615, down

to the end of the fifteenth century, the nobles and the civil and

ecclesiastical authorities excluded the Jews from administrative

positions; but it continually happened that a positive want of money,

against which the Jews were ever ready to provide, caused a repeal or

modification of these arbitrary measures. Moreover, Christians did not

feel any scruple in parting with their most valued treasures, and giving

them as pledges to the Jews for a loan of money when they were in need of

it. This plan of lending on pledge, or usury, belonged specially to the

Jews in Europe during the Middle Ages, and was both the cause of their

prosperity and of their misfortune. Of their prosperity, because they

cleverly contrived to become possessors of all the coin; and of their

misfortune, because their usurious demands became so detrimental to the

public welfare, and were often exacted with such unscrupulous severity,

that people not unfrequently became exasperated, and acts of violence were

committed, which as often fell upon the innocent as upon the guilty. The

greater number of the acts of banishment were those for which no other

motive was assigned, or, at all events, no other pretext was made, than

the usury practised by these strangers in the provinces and in the towns

in which they were permitted to reside. When the Christians heard that

these rapacious guests had harshly pressed and entirely stripped certain

poor debtors, when they learned that the debtors, ruined by usury, were

still kept prisoners in the house of their pitiless creditors, general

indignation often manifested itself by personal attacks. This feeling was

frequently shared by the authorities themselves, who, instead of

dispensing equal justice to the strangers and to the citizens, according

to the spirit of the law, often decided with partiality, and even with

resentment, and in some cases abandoned the Jews to the fury of the

people.

The people's feelings of hatred against the sordid avarice of the Jews was

continually kept up by ballads which were sung, and legends which were

related, in the public streets of the cities and in the cottages of the

villages--ballads and legends in which usurers were depicted in hideous

colours (Fig. 366). The most celebrated of these popular compositions was

evidently that which must have furnished the idea to Shakespeare of the

_Merchant of Venice_, for in this old English drama mention is made of a

bargain struck between a Jew and a Christian, who borrows money of him, on

condition that, if he cannot refund it on a certain day, the lender shall

have the right of cutting a pound of flesh from his body. All the evil

which the people said and thought of the Jews during the Middle Ages seems

concentrated in the Shylock of the English poet.

The rate of interest for loans was, nevertheless, everywhere settled by

law, and at all times. This rate varied according to the scarcity of

gold, and was always high enough to give a very ample profit to the

lenders, although they too often required a very much higher rate. In

truth, the small security offered by those borrowing, and the arbitrary

manner in which debts were at times cancelled, increased the risks of the

lender and the normal difficulties of obtaining a loan. We find

everywhere, in all ancient legislations, a mass of rules on the rate of

pecuniary interest to be allowed to the Jews.

[Illustration: Fig. 366.--Legend of the Jew calling the Devil from a

Vessel of Blood.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in Boaistuau's "Histoires

Prodigieuses:" in 4to, Paris, Annet Briere, 1560.]

In some countries, especially in England, precautionary measures were

taken for regulating the compacts entered into between Christians and

Jews. One of the departments of the Exchequer received the register of

these compacts, which thus acquired a legal value. However, it was not

unfrequent for the kings of England to grant, of their own free will,

letters of release to persons owing money to Jews; and these letters,

which were often equivalent to the cancelling of the entire debt, were

even at times actually purchased from the sovereign. Mention of sums

received by the royal treasury for the liberation of debtors, or for

enabling them to recover their mortgaged lands without payment, may still

be found in the registers of the Exchequer of London; at the same time,

Jews, on the other hand, also paid the King large sums, in order that he

might allow justice to take its course against powerful debtors who were

in arrear, and who could not be induced to pay. We thus see that if the

Jews practised usury, the Christians, and especially kings and powerful

nobles, defrauded the Jews in every way, and were too often disposed to

sell to them the smallest concessions at a great price. Indeed, Christians

often went so far as to persecute them, in order to obtain the greatest

possible amount from them; and the Jews of the Middle Ages put up with

anything provided they could enrich themselves.

[Illustration: Fig. 367.--View and Plan of Jerusalem.--Fac-simile of a

Woodout in the "Liber Chronicarum Mundi" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493.]

It must not be supposed, however, that, great as were their capabilities,

the Jews exclusively devoted themselves to financial matters. When they

were permitted to trade they were well satisfied to become artisans or

agriculturists. In Spain they proved themselves most industrious, and that

kingdom suffered a great loss in consequence of their being expelled from

it. In whatever country they established themselves, the Jews carried on

most of the mechanical and manual industries with cleverness and success;

but they could not hope to become landed proprietors in countries where

they were in such bad odour, and where the possession of land, far from

offering them any security, could not fail to excite the envy of their

enemies.

If, as is the case, Oriental people are of a serious turn of mind, it is

easy to understand that the Jews should have been still more so, since

they were always objects of hatred and abhorrence. We find a touching

allegory in the Talmud. Each time that a human being is created God orders

his angels to bring a soul before his throne, and orders this soul to go

and inhabit the body which is about to be born on earth. The soul is

grieved, and supplicates the Supreme Being to spare it that painful trial,

in which it only sees sorrow and affliction. This allegory may be suitably

applied to a people who have only to expect contempt, mistrust, and

hatred, everywhere. The Israelites, therefore, clung enthusiastically to

the hope of the advent of a Messiah who should bring back to them the

happy days of the land of promise, and they looked upon their absence from

Palestine as only a passing exile. "But," the Christians said to them,

"this Messiah has long since come." "Alas!" they answered, "if He had

appeared on earth should we still be miserable?" Fulbert, Bishop of

Chartres, preached three sermons to undeceive the Jews, by endeavouring to

prove to them that their Messiah was no other than Jesus Christ; but he

preached to the winds, for the Jews remained obstinately attached to their

illusion that the Messiah was yet to come.

In any case, the Jews, who mixed up the mysteries and absurdities of the

Talmud with the ancient laws and numerous rules of the religion of their

ancestors, found in the practice of their national customs, and in the

celebration of their mysterious ceremonies, the sweetest emotions,

especially when they could devote themselves to them in the peaceful

retirement of the Ghetto; for, in all the countries in which they lived

scattered and isolated amongst Christians, they were careful to conceal

their worship and to conduct their ceremonial as secretly as possible.

The clergy, in striving to convert the Jews, repeatedly had conferences

with the rabbis of a controversial character, which often led to quarrels,

and aggravated the lot of the Jewish community. If Catholic proselystism

succeeded in completely detaching a few individuals or a few families from

the Israelitish creed, these ardent converts rekindled the horror of the

people against their former co-religionists by revealing some of the

precepts of the Talmud. Sometimes the conversion of whole masses of Jews

was effected, but this happened much less through conviction on their part

than through the fear of exile, plunder, or execution.

These pretended conversions, however, did not always protect them from

danger. In Spain the Inquisition kept a close watch on converted Jews,

and, if they were not true to their new faith, severe punishment was

inflicted upon them. In 1506, the inhabitants of Abrantès, a town of

Portugal, massacred all the baptized Jews. Manoël, a king of Portugal,

forbad the converts from selling their goods and leaving his dominions.

The Church excluded them from ecclesiastical dignities, and, when they

succeeded in obtaining civil employments, they were received with

distrust. In France the Parliaments tried, with a show of justice, to

prevent converted Jews from being reproached for their former condition;

but Louis XII., during his pressing wants, did not scruple to exact a

special tax from them. And, in 1611, we again find that they were unjustly

denounced, and under the form of a _Remonstrance to the King and the

Parliament of Provence, on account of the great family alliances of the

new converts_, an appeal was made for the most cruel reprisals against

this unfortunate race, "which deserved only to be banished and their goods

confiscated."

[Illustration: Fig. 368.--Jewish Ceremony before the Ark.--Fac-simile of a woodcut

printed at Troyes.]

Gipsies, Tramps, Beggars, and Cours des Miracles.

First Appearance of Gipsies in the West.--Gipsies in Paris.--Manners and

Customs of these Wandering Tribes.--Tricks of Captain Charles.--Gipsies

expelled by Royal Edict.--Language of Gipsies.--The Kingdom of

Slang.--The Great Coesre, Chief of the Vagrants; his Vassals and

Subjects.--Divisions of the Slang People; its Decay and the Causes

thereof.--Cours des Miracles.--The Camp of Rognes.--Cunning Language, or

Slang.--Foreign Rogues, Thieves, and Pickpockets.

In the year 1417 the inhabitants of the countries situated near the mouth

of the Elbe were disturbed by the arrival of strangers, whose manners and

appearance were far from pre-possessing. These strange travellers took a

course thence towards the Teutonic Hanse, starting from Luneburg: they

subsequently proceeded to Hamburg, and then, going from east to west along

the Baltic, they visited the free towns of Lubeck, Wismar, Rostock,

Stralsund, and Greifswald.

These new visitors, known in Europe under the names of _Zingari, Cigani,

Gipsies, Gitanos, Egyptians_, or _Bohemians_, but who, in their own

language, called themselves _Romi_, or _gens mariés_, numbered about three

hundred men and women, besides the children, who were very numerous. They

divided themselves into seven bands, all of which followed the same track.

Very dirty, excessively ugly, and remarkable for their dark complexions,

these people had for their leaders a duke and a count, as they were

called, who were superbly dressed, and to whom they acknowledged

allegiance. Some of them rode on horseback, whilst others went on foot.

The women and children travelled on beasts of burden and in waggons (Fig.

369). If we are to believe their own story, their wandering life was

caused by their return to Paganism after having been previously converted

to the Christian faith, and, as a punishment for their sin, they were to

continue their adventurous course for a period of seven years. They showed

letters of recommendation from various princes, among others from

Sigismund, King of the Romans, and these letters, whether authentic or

false, procured for them a welcome wherever they went. They encamped in

the fields at night, because the habit they indulged in of stealing

everything for which they had a fancy, caused them to fear being disturbed

in the towns. It was not long, however, before many of them were arrested

and put to death for theft, when the rest speedily decamped.

[Illustration: Fig. 369.--Gipsies on the March.--Fifteenth Century Piece

of old Tapestry in the Château d'Effiat, contributed by M.A. Jubinal.]

In the course of the following year we find them at Meissen, in Saxony,

whence they were driven out on account of the robberies and disturbances

they committed; and then in Switzerland, where they passed through the

countries of the Grisons, the cantons of Appenzell, and Zurich, stopping

in Argovie. Chroniclers who mention them at that time speak of their

chief, Michel, as Duke of Egypt, and relate that these strangers, calling

themselves Egyptians, pretended that they were driven from their country

by the Sultan of Turkey, and condemned to wander for seven years in want

and misery. These chroniclers add that they were very honest people, who

scrupulously followed all the practices of the Christian religion; that

they were poorly clad, but that they had gold and silver in abundance;

that they lived well, and paid for everything they had; and that, at the

end of seven years, they went away to return home, as they said. However,

whether because a considerable number remained on the road, or because

they had been reinforced by others of the same tribe during the year, a

troop of fifty men, accompanied by a number of hideous women and filthy

children, made their appearance in the neighbourhood of Augsburg. These

vagabonds gave out that they were exiles from Lower Egypt, and pretended

to know the art of predicting coming events. It was soon found out that

they were much less versed in divination and in the occult sciences than

in the arts of plundering, roguery, and cheating.

In the following year a similar horde, calling themselves Saracens,

appeared at Sisteron, in Provence; and on the 18th. of July, 1422, a

chronicler of Bologna mentions the arrival in that town of a troop of

foreigners, commanded by a certain André, Duke of Egypt, and composed of

at least one hundred persons, including women and children. They encamped

inside and outside the gate _di Galiera_, with the exception of the duke,

who lodged at the inn _del Re_. During the fifteen days which they spent

at Bologna a number of the people of the town went to see them, and

especially to see "the wife of the duke," who, it was said, knew how to

foretell future events, and to tell what was to happen to people, what

their fortunes would be, the number of their children, if they were good

or bad, and many other things (Fig. 370). Few men, however, left the house

of the so-called Duke of Egypt without having their purses stolen, and but

few women escaped without having the skirts of their dresses cut. The

Egyptian women walked about the town in groups of six or seven, and whilst

some were talking to the townspeople, telling them their fortunes, or

bartering in shops, one of their number would lay her hands on anything

which was within reach. So many robberies were committed in this way, that

the magistrates of the town and the ecclesiastical authorities forbad the

inhabitants from visiting the Egyptians' camp, or from having any

intercourse with them, under penalty of excommunication and of a fine of

fifty livres. Besides this, by a strange application of the laws of

retaliation, those who had been robbed by these foreigners were permitted

to rob them to the extent of the value of the things stolen. In

consequence of this, the Bolognians entered a stable in which several of

the Egyptians' horses were kept, and took out one of the finest of them.

In order to recover him the Egyptians agreed to restore what they had

taken, and the restitution was made. But perceiving that they could no

longer do any good for themselves in this province, they struck their

tents and started for Rome, to which city they said they were bound to go,

not only in order to accomplish a pilgrimage imposed upon them by the

Sultan, who had expelled them from their own land, but especially to

obtain letters of absolution from the Holy Father.

[Illustration: Fig. 370.--Gipsies Fortune-telling.--Fac-simile of a

Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle,

1552.]

In 1422 the band left Italy, and we find them at Basle and in Suabia.

Then, besides the imperial passports, of which they had up to that time

alone boasted, they pretended to have in their possession bulls which they

stated that they had obtained from the Pope. They also modified their

original tale, and stated that they were descendants of the Egyptians who

refused hospitality to the Holy Virgin and to St. Joseph during their

flight into Egypt: they also declared that, in consequence of this crime,

God had doomed their race to perpetual misery and exile.

Five years later we find them in the neighbourhood of Paris. "The Sunday

after the middle of August," says "The Journal of a Bourgeois of Paris,"

"there came to Paris twelve so-called pilgrims, that is to say, a duke, a

count, and ten men, all on horseback; they said that they were very good

Christians, and that they came from Lower Egypt; ... and on the 29th of

August, the anniversary of the beheading of St. John, the rest of the band

made their appearance. These, however, were not allowed to enter Paris,

but, by order of the provost, were lodged in the Chapel of St. Denis. They

did not number more than one hundred and twenty, including women and

children. They stated that, when they left their own country, they

numbered from a thousand to twelve hundred, but that the rest had died on

the road..... Whilst they were at the chapel never was such a concourse of

people collected, even at the blessing of the fair of Landit, as went from

Paris, St. Denis, and elsewhere, to see these strangers. Almost all of

them had their ears pierced, and in each one or two silver rings, which in

their country, they said, was a mark of nobility. The men were very

swarthy, with curly hair; the women were very ugly, and extremely dark,

with long black hair, like a horse's tail; their only garment being an old

rug tied round the shoulder by a strip of cloth or a bit of rope (Fig.

371). Amongst them were several fortune-tellers, who, by looking into

people's hands, told them what had happened or what was to happen to them,

and by this means often did a good deal to sow discord in families. What

was worse, either by magic, by Satanic agency, or by sleight of hand, they

managed to empty people's purses whilst talking to them.... So, at least,

every one said. At last accounts respecting them reached the ears of the

Bishop of Paris. He went to them with a Franciscan friar, called Le Petit

Jacobin, who, by the bishop's order, delivered an earnest address to them,

and excommunicated all those who had anything to do with them, or who had

their fortunes told. He further advised the gipsies to go away, and, on

the festival of Notre-Dame, they departed for Pontoise."

[Illustration: Fig. 371.--A Gipsy Family.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the

"Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552.]

Here, again, the gipsies somewhat varied their story. They said that they

were originally Christians; but that, in consequence of an invasion by the

Saracens, they had been forced to renounce their religion; that, at a

subsequent period, powerful monarchs had come to free them from the yoke

of the infidels, and had decreed that, as a punishment to them for having

renounced the Christian faith, they should not be allowed to return to

their country before they had obtained permission from the Pope. They

stated that the Holy Father, to whom they had gone to confess their sins,

had then ordered them to wander about the world for seven years, without

sleeping in beds, at the same time giving direction to every bishop and

every priest whom they met to offer them ten livres; a direction which the

abbots and bishops were in no hurry to obey. These strange pilgrims stated

that they had been only five years on the road when they arrived in Paris.

Enough has been said to show that, although the object of their long

pilgrimage was ostensibly a pious one, the Egyptians or gipsies were not

very slow in giving to the people whom they visited a true estimate of

their questionable honesty, and we do not think it would be particularly

interesting to follow step by step the track of this odious band, which

from this period made its appearance sometimes in one country and

sometimes in another, not only in the north but in the south, and

especially in the centre of Europe. Suffice it to say that their quarrels

with the authorities, or the inhabitants of the countries which had the

misfortune to be periodically visited by them, have left numerous traces

in history.

On the 7th of November, 1453, from sixty to eighty gipsies, coming from

Courtisolles, arrived at the entrance of the town of Cheppe, near

Châlons-sur-Marne. The strangers, many of whom carried "javelins, darts,

and other implements of war," having asked for hospitality, the mayor of

the town informed them "that it was not long since some of the same

company, or others very like them, had been lodged in the town, and had

been guilty of various acts of theft." The gipsies persisted in their

demands, the indignation of the people was aroused, and they were soon

obliged to resume their journey. During their unwilling retreat, they were

pursued by many of the inhabitants of the town, one of whom killed a gipsy

named Martin de la Barre: the murderer, however, obtained the King's

pardon.

In 1532, at Pleinpalais, a suburb of Geneva, some rascals from among a

band of gipsies, consisting of upwards of three hundred in number, fell

upon several of the officers who were stationed to prevent their entering

the town. The citizens hurried up to the scene of disturbance. The gipsies

retired to the monastery of the Augustin friars, in which they fortified

themselves: the bourgeois besieged them, and would have committed summary

justice on them, but the authorities interfered, and some twenty of the

vagrants were arrested, but they sued for mercy, and were discharged.

[Illustration: Fig. 372.--Gipsy Encampment.--Fac-simile of a Copper-plate

by Callot.]

In 1632, the inhabitants of Viarme, in the Department of Lot-et-Garonne,

made an onslaught upon a troop of gipsies who wanted to take up their

quarters in that town. The whole of them were killed, with the exception

of their chief, who was taken prisoner and brought before the Parliament

of Bordeaux, and ordered to be hung. Twenty-one years before this, the

mayor and magistrates of Bordeaux gave orders to the soldiers of the watch

to arrest a gipsy chief, who, having shut himself up in the tower of

Veyrines, at Merignac, ransacked the surrounding country. On the 21st of

July, 1622, the same magistrates ordered the gipsies to leave the parish

of Eysines within twenty-four hours, under penalty of the lash.

It was not often that the gipsies used violence or openly resisted

authority; they more frequently had recourse to artifice and cunning in

order to attain their end. A certain Captain Charles acquired a great

reputation amongst them for the clever trickeries which he continually

conceived, and which his troop undertook to carry out. A chronicler of the

time says, that by means of certain herbs which he gave to a half-starved

horse, he made him into a fat and sleek animal; the horse was then sold at

one of the neighbouring fairs or markets, but the purchaser detected the

fraud within a week, for the horse soon became thin again, and usually

sickened and died.

Tallemant des Réaux relates that, on one occasion, Captain Charles and his

attendants took up their quarters in a village, the curé of which being

rich and parsimonious, was much disliked by his parishioners. The curé

never left his house, and the gipsies could not, therefore, get an

opportunity to rob him. In this difficulty, they pretended that one of

them had committed a crime, and had been condemned to be hung a quarter of

a league from the village, where they betook themselves with all their

goods. The man, at the foot of the gibbet, asked for a confessor, and they

went to fetch the curé. He, at first, refused to go, but his parishioners

compelled him. During his absence some gipsies entered his house, took

five hundred écus from his strong box, and quickly rejoined the troop. As

soon as the rascal saw them returning, he said that he appealed to the

king of _la petite Egypte_, upon which the captain exclaimed, "Ah! the

traitor! I expected he would appeal." Immediately they packed up, secured

the prisoner, and were far enough away from the scene before the curé

re-entered his house.

Tallemant relates another good trick. Near Roye, in Picardy, a gipsy who

had stolen a sheep offered it to a butcher for one hundred sous (about

sixty francs of our money), but the butcher declined to give more than

four livres for it. The butcher then went away; whereupon the gipsy pulled

the sheep from a sack into which he had put it, and substituted for it a

child belonging to his tribe. He then ran after the butcher, and said,

"Give me five livres, and you shall have the sack into the bargain." The

butcher paid him the money, and went away. When he got home he opened the

sack, and was much astonished when he saw a little boy jump out of it,

who, in an instant, caught up the sack and ran off. "Never was a poor man

so thoroughly hoaxed as this butcher," says Tallemant des Réaux.

The gipsies had thousands of other tricks in stock as good as the ones we

have just related, in proof of which we have but to refer to the testimony

of one of their own tribe, who, under the name of Pechon de Ruby,

published, towards the close of the sixteenth century, "La Vie Généreuse

des Mattois, Guex, Bohémiens, et Cagoux." "When they want to leave a place

where they have been stopping, they set out in an opposite direction to

that in which they are going, and after travelling about half a league

they take their right course. They possess the best and most accurate

maps, in which are laid down not only all the towns, villages, and rivers,

but also the houses of the gentry and others; and they fix upon places of

rendezvous every ten days, at twenty leagues from the point from whence

they set out.... The captain hands over to each of the chiefs three or

four families to take charge of, and these small bands take different

cross-roads towards the place of rendezvous. Those who are well armed and

mounted he sends off with a good almanac, on which are marked all the

fairs, and they continually change their dress and their horses. When they

take up their quarters in any village they steal very little in its

immediate vicinity, but in the neighbouring parishes they rob and plunder

in the most daring manner. If they find a sum of money they give notice to

the captain, and make a rapid flight from the place. They coin counterfeit

money, and put it into circulation. They play at all sorts of games; they

buy all sorts of horses; whether sound or unsound, provided they can

manage to pay for them in their own base coin. When they buy food they pay

for it in good money the first time, as they are held in such distrust;

but, when they are about to leave a neighbourhood, they again buy

something, for which they tender false coin, receiving the change in good

money. In harvest time all doors are shut against them; nevertheless they

contrive, by means of picklocks and other instruments, to effect an

entrance into houses, when they steal linen, cloaks, silver, and any other

movable article which they can lay their hands on. They give a strict

account of everything to their captain, who takes his share of all they

get, except of what they earn by fortune-telling. They are very clever at

making a good bargain; when they know of a rich merchant being in the

place, they disguise themselves, enter into communications with him, and

swindle him, ... after which they change their clothes, have their horses

shod the reverse way, and the shoes covered with some soft material lest

they should be heard, and gallop away."

[Illustration: Fig. 373.--The Gipsy who used to wash his Hands in Molten

Lead.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the "Histoires Merveilleuses" of Pierre

Boaistuau: in 4to, 1560.]

In the "Histoire Générale des Larrons" we read that the vagabonds called

gipsies sometimes played tricks with goblets, sometimes danced on the

tight-rope, turned double-somersaults, and performed other feats (Fig.

373), which proves that these adventurers adopted all kinds of methods of

gaining a livelihood, highway robbery not excepted. We must not,

therefore, be surprised if in almost all countries very severe police

measures were taken against this dangerous race, though we must admit that

these measures sometimes partook of a barbarous character.

After having forbidden them, with a threat of six years at the galleys, to

sojourn in Spain, Charles V. ordered them to leave Flanders under penalty

of death. In 1545, a gipsy who had infringed the sentence of banishment

was condemned by the Court of Utrecht to be flogged till the blood

appeared, to have his nostrils slit, his hair removed, his beard shaved

off, and to be banished for life. "We can form some idea," says the German

historian Grellman, "of the miserable condition of the gipsies from the

following facts: many of them, and especially the women, have been burned

by their own request, in order to end their miserable state of existence;

and we can give the case of a gipsy who, having been arrested, flogged,

and conducted to the frontier, with the threat that if he reappeared in

the country he would be hanged, resolutely returned after three successive

and similar threats, at three different places, and implored that the

capital sentence might be carried out, in order that he might be released

from a life of such misery. These unfortunate people," continues the

historian, "were not even looked upon as human beings, for, during a

hunting party, consisting of members of a small German court, the huntsmen

had no scruple whatever in killing a gipsy woman who was suckling her

child, just as they would have done any wild beast which came in their

way."

M. Francisque Michel says, "Amongst the questions which arise from a

consideration of the existence of this remarkable people, is one which,

although neglected, is nevertheless of considerable interest, namely, how,

with a strange language, unlike any used in Europe, the gipsies could make

themselves understood by the people amongst whom they made their

appearance for the first time: newly arrived in the west, they could have

none of those interpreters who are only to be found amongst a

long-established people, and who have political and commercial intercourse

with other nations. Where, then, did the gipsies obtain interpreters? The

answer seems to us to be clear. Receiving into their ranks all those whom

crime, the fear of punishment, an uneasy conscience, or the charm of a

roaming life, continually threw in their path, they made use of them

either to find their way into countries of which they were ignorant, or to

commit robberies which would otherwise have been impracticable. Themselves

adepts in all sorts of bad practices, they were not slow to form an

alliance with profligate characters who sometimes worked in concert with

them, and sometimes alone, and who always framed the model for their own

organization from that of the gipsies."

[Illustration: Fig. 374.--Orphans, _Callots_, and the Family of the Grand

Coesre.--From painted Hangings and Tapestry from the Town of Rheims,

executed during the Fifteenth Century.]

This alliance--governed by statutes, the honour of compiling which has

been given to a certain Ragot, who styled himself captain--was composed of

_matois_, or sharpers; of _mercelots_, or hawkers, who were very little

better than the former; of _gueux_, or dishonest beggars, and of a host of

other swindlers, constituting the order or hierarchy of the _Argot_, or

Slang people. Their chief was called the _Grand Coesre_, "a vagabond

broken to all the tricks of his trade," says M. Francisque Michel, and who

frequently ended his days on the rack or the gibbet. History has furnished

us with the story of a "miserable cripple" who used to sit in a wooden

bowl, and who, after having been Grand Coesre for three years, was broken

alive on the wheel at Bordeaux for his crimes. He was called _Roi de

Tunes_ (Tunis), and was drawn about by two large dogs. One of his

successors, the Grand Coesre surnamed Anacréon, who suffered from the same

infirmity, namely, that of a cripple, rode about Paris on a donkey

begging. He generally held his court on the Port-au-Foin, where he sat on

his throne dressed in a mantle made of a thousand pieces. The Grand Coesre

had a lieutenant in each province called _cagou_, whose business it was to

initiate apprentices in the secrets of the craft, and who looked after,

in different localities, those whom the chief had entrusted to his care.

He gave an account of the property he received in thus exercising his

stewardship, and of the money as well as of the clothing which he took

from the _Argotiers_ who refused to recognise his authority. As a

remuneration for their duties, the cagoux were exempt from all tribute to

their chief; they received their share of the property taken from persons

whom they had ordered to be robbed, and they were free to beg in any way

they pleased. After the cagoux came the _archisuppôts_, who, being

recruited from the lowest dregs of the clergy and others who had been in a

better position, were, so to speak, the teachers of the law. To them was

intrusted the duty of instructing the less experienced rogues, and of

determining the language of Slang; and, as a reward for their good and

loyal services, they had the right of begging without paying any fees to

their chiefs.

[Illustration: Fig. 375.--The Blind and the Poor Sick of St. John.--From

painted Hangings and Tapestry in the Town of Rheims, executed during the

Fifteenth Century.]

The Grand Coesre levied a tax of twenty-four sous per annum upon the young

rogues, who went about the streets pretending to shed tears (Fig. 374), as

"helpless orphans," in order to excite public sympathy. The _marcandiers_

had to pay an écu; they were tramps clothed in a tolerably good doublet,

who passed themselves off as merchants ruined by war, by fire, or by

having been robbed on the highway. The _malingreux_ had to pay forty sous;

they were covered with sores, most of which were self-inflicted, or they

pretended to have swellings of some kind, and stated that they were about

to undertake a pilgrimage to St. Méen, in Brittany, in order to be cured.

The _piètres_, or lame rogues, paid half an écu, and walked with crutches.

The _sabouleux_, who were commonly called the _poor sick of St. John_,

were in the habit of frequenting fairs and markets, or the vicinity of

churches; there, smeared with blood and appearing as if foaming at the

mouth by means of a piece of soap they had placed in it, they struggled on

the ground as if in a fit, and in this way realised a considerable amount

of alms. These consequently paid the largest fees to the Coesre (Fig.

375).

[Illustration: Fig. 376.--The _Ruffes_ and the _Millards_.--From painted

Hangings and Tapestry of Rheims, executed about the Fifteenth Century.]

Besides these, there were the _callots_, who were either affected with a

scurfy disease or pretended to be so, and who were contributors to the

civil list of their chief to the amount of sevens sous; as also the

_coquillards_, or pretended pilgrims of St. James or St. Michael; and the

_hubins_, who, according to the forged certificate which they carried with

them, were going to, or returning from, St. Hubert, after having been

bitten by a mad dog. The _polissons_ paid two écus to the Coesre, but they

earned a considerable amount, especially in winter; for benevolent people,

touched with their destitution and half-nakedness, gave them sometimes a

doublet, sometimes a shirt, or some other article of clothing, which of

course they immediately sold. The _francs mitoux_, who were never taxed

above five sous, were sickly members of the fraternity, or at all events

pretended to be such; they tied their arms above the elbow so as to stop

the pulse, and fell down apparently fainting on the public footpaths. We

must also mention the _ruffés_ and the _millards_, who went into the

country in groups begging (Fig. 376). The _capons_ were cut-purses, who

hardly ever left the towns, and who laid hands on everything within their

reach. The _courtauds de boutanche_ pretended to be workmen, and were to

be met with everywhere with the tools of their craft on their back, though

they never used them. The _convertis_ pretended to have been impressed by

the exhortations of some excellent preacher, and made a public profession

of faith; they afterwards stationed themselves at church doors, as

recently converted Catholics, and in this way received liberal

contributions.

Lastly, we must mention the _drilles_, the _narquois_, or the people of

the _petite flambe_, who for the most part were old pensioners, and who

begged in the streets from house to house, with their swords at their

sides (Fig. 377). These, who at times lived a racketing and luxurious

life, at last rebelled against the Grand Coesre, and would no longer be

reckoned among his subjects--a step which gave a considerable shock to the

Argotic monarchy.

[Illustration: Fig. 377.--The _Drille_ or _Narquois_.--From painted

Hangings from the Town of Rheims (Fifteenth Century).]

[Illustration: Fig. 378.--Perspective View of Paris in 1607.--Fac-simile

of a Copper-plate by Léonard Gaultier. (Collection of M. Guénebault,

Paris.)]

There was another cause which greatly contributed to diminish the power

as well as the prestige of this eccentric sovereign, and this was, that

the cut-purses, the night-prowlers and wood-thieves, not finding

sufficient means of livelihood in their own department, and seeing that

the Argotiers, on the contrary, were always in a more luxurious position,

tried to amalgamate robbery with mendicity, which raised an outcry amongst

these sections of their community. The archisuppôts and the cagoux at

first declined such an alliance, but eventually they were obliged to admit

all, with the exception of the wood-thieves, who were altogether excluded.

In the seventeenth century, therefore, in order to become a thorough

Argotier, it was necessary not only to solicit alms like any mere beggar,

but also to possess the dexterity of the cut-purse and the thief. These

arts were to be learned in the places which served as the habitual

rendezvous of the very dregs of society, and which were generally known as

the _Cours des Miracles_. These houses, or rather resorts, had been so

called, if we are to believe a writer of the early part of the seventeenth

century, "Because rogues ... and others, who have all day been cripples,

maimed, dropsical, and beset with every sort of bodily ailment, come home

at night, carrying under their arms a sirloin of beef, a joint of veal, or

a leg of mutton, not forgetting to hang a bottle of wine to their belt,

and, on entering the court, they throw aside their crutches, resume their

healthy and lusty appearance, and, in imitation of the ancient

Bacchanalian revelries, dance all kinds of dances with their trophies in

their hands, whilst the host is preparing their suppers. Can there be a

greater _miracle_ than is to be seen in this court, where the maimed walk

upright?"

[Illustration: Fig. 379.--_Cour des Miracles_ of Paris. Talebot the

Hunchback, a celebrated Scamp during the Seventeenth Century.--From an old

Engraving in the Collection of Engravings in the National Library of

Paris.]

In Paris there were several _Cours des Miracles_, but the most celebrated

was that which, from the time of Sauval, the singular historian of the

"Antiquities of Paris," to the middle of the seventeenth century,

preserved this generic name _par excellence_, and which exists to this day

(Fig. 379). He says, "It is a place of considerable size, and is in an

unhealthy, muddy, and irregular blind alley. Formerly it was situated on

the outskirts of Paris, now it is in one of the worst built, dirtiest, and

most out-of-the-way quarters of the town, between the Rue Montorgueil, the

convent of the Filles-Dieu, and the Rue Neuve-Saint-Sauveur. To get there

one must wander through narrow, close, and by-streets; and in order to

enter it, one must descend a somewhat winding and rugged declivity. In

this place I found a mud house, half buried, very shaky from old age and

rottenness, and only eight mètres square; but in which, nevertheless,

some fifty families are living, who have the charge of a large number of

children, many of whom are stolen or illegitimate.... I was assured that

upwards of five hundred large families occupy that and other houses

adjoining.... Large as this court is, it was formerly even bigger....

Here, without any care for the future, every one enjoys the present; and

eats in the evening what he has earned during the day with so much

trouble, and often with so many blows; for it is one of the fundamental

rules of the Cour des Miracles never to lay by anything for the morrow.

Every one who lives there indulges in the utmost licentiousness; both

religion and law are utterly ignored.... It is true that outwardly they

appear to acknowledge a God; for they have set up in a niche an image of

God the Father, which they have stolen from some church, and before which

they come daily to offer up certain prayers; but this is only because they

superstitiously imagine that by this means they are released from the

necessity of performing the duties of Christians to their pastor and their

parish, and are even absolved from the sin of entering a church for the

purpose of robbery and purse-cutting."

Paris, the capital of the kingdom of rogues, was not the only town which

possessed a Cour des Miracles, for we find here and there, especially at

Lyons and Bordeaux, some traces of these privileged resorts of rogues and

thieves, which then flourished under the sceptre of the Grand Coesre.

Sauval states, on the testimony of people worthy of credit, that at

Sainte-Anne d'Auray, the most holy place of pilgrimage in Brittany, under

the superintendence of the order of reformed Carmelite friars, there was a

large field called the _Rogue's Field_. This was covered with mud huts;

and here the Grand Coesre resorted annually on the principal solemn

festivals, with his officers and subjects, in order "to hold his council

of state," that is to say, in order to settle and arrange respecting

robbery. At these _state_ meetings, which were not always held at

Sainte-Anne d'Auray, all the subjects of the Grand Coesre were present,

and paid homage to their lord and master. Some came and paid him the

tribute which was required of them by the statutes of the craft; others

rendered him an account of what they had done, and what they had earned

during the year. When they had executed their work badly, he ordered them

to be punished, either corporally or pecuniarily, according to the gravity

of their offences. When he had not himself properly governed his people,

he was dethroned, and a successor was appointed by acclamation.

[Illustration: Fig. 380.--Beggar playing the Fiddle, and his Wife

accompanying him with the Bones.--From an old Engraving of the Seventeenth

Century.]

At these assemblies, as well as in the Cours des Miracles, French was not

spoken, but a strange and artificial language was used called _jargon_,

_langue matoise, narquois_, &c. This language, which is still in use under

the name of _argot_, or slang, had for the most part been borrowed from

the jargon or slang of the lower orders. To a considerable extent,

according to the learned philologist of this mysterious language, M.

Francisque Michel, it was composed of French words lengthened or

abbreviated; of proverbial expressions; of words expressing the symbols of

things instead of the things themselves; of terms either intentionally or

unintentionally altered from their true meaning; and of words which

resembled other words in sound, but which had not the same signification.

Thus, for mouth, they said _pantière_, from _pain_ (bread), which they put

into it; the arms were _lyans_ (binders); an ox was a _cornant_ (horned);

a purse, a _fouille_, or _fouillouse_; a cock, a _horloge_, or timepiece;

the legs, _des quilles_ (nine-pins); a sou, a _rond_, or round thing; the

eyes, _des luisants_ (sparklers), &c. In jargon several words were also

taken from the ancient language of the gipsies, which testifies to the

part which these vagabonds played in the formation of the Argotic

community. For example, a shirt was called _lime_; a chambermaid,

_limogère;_ sheets, _limans_--words all derived from the gipsy word

_lima_, a shirt: they called an écu, a _rusquin_ or _rougesme_, from

_rujia_, the common word for money; a rich man, _rupin_; a house, _turne_;

a knife, _chourin_, from _rup, turna_, and _chori_, which, in the gipsy

tongue, mean respectively silver, castle, and knife.

From what we have related about rogues and the Cours des Miracles, one

might perhaps be tempted to suppose that France was specially privileged;

but it was not so, for Italy was far worse in this respect. The rogues

were called by the Italians _bianti_, or _ceretani_, and were subdivided

into more than forty classes, the various characteristics of which have

been described by a certain Rafael Frianoro. It is not necessary to state

that the analogue of more than one of these classes is to be found in the

short description we have given of the Argotic kingdom in France. We will

therefore only mention those which were more especially Italian. It must

not be forgotten that in the southern countries, where religions

superstition was more marked than elsewhere, the numerous family of rogues

had no difficulty in practising every description of imposture, inasmuch

as they trusted to the various manifestations of religions feeling to

effect their purposes. Thus the _affrati_, in order to obtain more alms

and offerings, went about in the garb of monks and priests, even saying

mass, and pretending that it was the first time they had exercised their

sacred office. So the _morghigeri_ walked behind a donkey, carrying a bell

and a lamp, with their string of beads in their hands, and asking how they

were to pay for the bell, which they were always "just going to buy." The

_felsi_ pretended that they were divinely inspired and endowed with the

gift of second sight, and announced that there were hidden treasures in

certain houses under the guardianship of evil spirits. They asserted that

these treasures could not be discovered without danger, except by means of

fastings and offerings, which they and their brethren could alone make, in

consideration of which they entered into a bargain, and received a certain

sum of money from the owners. The _accatosi_ deserve mention on account of

the cleverness with which they contrived to assume the appearance of

captives recently escaped from slavery. Shaking the chains with which they

said they had been bound, jabbering unintelligible words, telling

heart-rending tales of their sufferings and privations, and showing the

marks of blows which they had received, they went on their knees, begging

for money that they might buy off their brethren or their friends, whom

they said they had left in the hands of the Saracens or the Turks, We must

mention, also, the _allacrimanti_, or weepers, who owed their name to the

facility which they possessed of shedding tears at will; and the

_testatori_, who, pretending to be seriously ill and about to die,

extorted money from all those to whom they promised to leave their

fortunes, though, of course, they had not a son to leave behind them. We

must not forget the _protobianti_ (master rogues), who made no scruple of

exciting compassion from their own comrades (Fig. 381), nor the

_vergognosi_, who, notwithstanding their poverty, wished to be thought

rich, and considered that assistance was due to them from the mere fact of

their being noble. We must here conclude, for it would occupy too much

time to go through the list of these Italian vagabonds. As for the German

(Figs. 382 and 383), Spanish, and English rogues, we may simply remark

that no type exists among them which is not to be met with amongst the

Argotiers of France or the Bianti of Italy. In giving a description,

therefore, of the mendicity practised in these two countries during the

Middle Ages, we are sure to be representing what it was in other parts of

Europe.

[Illustration: Fig. 381.--Italian Beggar.--From an Engraving by Callot.]

[Illustration: Figs. 382 and 383.--German Beggars.--Fac-simile of a

Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle,

1552.]

The history of regular robbers and highwaymen during this long period is

more difficult to describe; it contains only disconnected anecdotes of a

more or less interesting character. It is probable, moreover, that robbers

did not always commit their depredations singly, and that they early

understood the advantages of associating together. The _Tafurs_, or

_Halegrins_, whom we notice as followers of Godefroy de Bouillon at the

time of the Crusades, towards the end of the eleventh century, were

terribly bad characters, and are actually accused by contemporary writers

of violating tombs, and of living on human flesh. On this account they

were looked upon with the utmost horror by the infidels, who dreaded more

their savage ferocity than the valour of the Crusaders. The latter even,

who had these hordes of Tafurs under their command, were not without

considerable mistrust of them, and when, during their march through

Hungary, under the protection of the cross, these miscreants committed

depredations, Godefroy de Bouillion was obliged to ask pardon for them

from the king of that country.

An ancient poet has handed down to us a story in verse setting forth the

exploits of Eustace the monk, who, after having thrown aside his frock,

embraced the life of a robber, and only abandoned it to become Admiral of

France under Philip Augustus. He was killed before Sandwich, in 1217. We

have satisfactory proof that as early as the thirteenth century sharpers

were very expert masters of their trade, for the ingenious and amusing

tricks of which they were guilty are quite equal to the most skilled of

those now recorded in our police reports. In the two following centuries

the science of the _pince_ and of the _croc_ (pincers and hook), as it was

then called, alone made progress, and Pathelin (a character in comedy, and

an incomparable type of craft and dishonesty) never lacked disciples any

more than Villon did imitators. We know that this charming poet, who was

at the same time a most expert thief, narrowly escaped hanging on two

occasions. His contemporaries attributed to him a poem of twelve hundred

verses, entitled "Les Repues Franches," in which are described the methods

in use among his companions for procuring wine, bread, meat, and fish,

without having to pay for them. They form a series of interesting

stories, the moral of which is to be gathered from the following lines:--

"C'est bien, disné, quand on eschappe

Sans desbourcer pas ung denier,

Et dire adieu an tavernier,

En torchant son nez à la nappe."

The meaning of this doggrel, which is somewhat broad, may be rendered--"He

dines well who escapes without paying a penny, and who bids farewell to

the innkeeper by wiping his nose on the tablecloth."

Side by side with this poem of Yillon we ought to cite one of a later

period--"La Légende de Maître Faifeu," versified by Charles Boudigné. This

Faifeu was a kind of Villon of Anjou, who excelled in all kinds of

rascality, and who might possibly have taught it even to the gipsies

themselves. The character of Panurge, in the "Pantagruel," is no other

than the type of Faifeu, immortalised by the genius of Rabelais. We must

also mention one of the pamphlets of Guillaume Bouchet, written towards

the end of the sixteenth century, which gives a very amusing account of

thieves of every description, and also "L'Histoire Générale des Larrons,"

in which are related numerous wonderful tales of murders, robberies, and

other atrocities, which made our admiring ancestors well acquainted with

the heroes of the Grève and of Montfaucon. It must not be supposed that in

those days the life of a robber who pursued his occupation with any degree

of industry and skill was unattended with danger, for the most harmless

cut-purses were hung without mercy whenever they were caught; the fear,

however, of this fate did not prevent the _Enfants de la Matte_ from

performing wonders.

Brantôme relates that King Charles IX. had the curiosity to wish to "know

how the cut-purses performed their arts with so much skill and dexterity,"

and begged Captain La Chambre to introduce to him, on the occasion of a

banquet and a ball, the cleverest cut-purses, giving them full liberty to

exhibit their skill. The captain went to the Cours des Miracles and

fetched ten of the most expert of these thieves, whom he presented to the

King. Charles, "after the dinner and the ball had taken place, wished to

see all the plunder, and found that they had absolutely earned three

thousand écus, either in money from purses, or in precious stones, pearls,

or other jewels; some of the guests even lost their cloaks, at which the

King thought he should die of laughter." The King allowed them to keep

what they had thus earned at the expense of his guests; but he forbad them

"to continue this sort of life," under penalty of being hung, and he had

them enrolled in the army, in order to recompense them for their clever

feats. We may safely assert that they made but indifferent soldiers.

[Illustration: Fig. 384.--The Exhibitor of strange Animals (Twelfth

Century Manuscript, Royal Library of Brussels).]

Ceremonials.

Origin of Modern Ceremonial.--Uncertainty of French Ceremonial up to the

End of the Sixteenth Century.--Consecration of the Kings of

France.--Coronation of the Emperors of Germany.--Consecration of the

Doges of Venice.--Marriage of the Doge with the Sea.--State Entries of

Sovereigns.--An Account of the Entry of Isabel of Bavaria into

Paris.--Seats of Justice.--Visits of Ceremony between Persons of

rank.--Mourning.--Social Courtesies.--Popular Demonstrations and

National Commemorations.--New Year's Day.--Local Festivals.--_Vins

d'Honneur._--Processions of Trades.

Although society during the Middle Ages was, as a whole, closely cemented

together, being animated by the same sentiments and imbued with the same

spirit, it was divided, as we have already stated, into three great

classes, namely, the clergy, the nobility, and the _liers-état._ These

classes, each of which formed a distinct body within the State, carried on

an existence peculiar to itself, and presented in its collective capacity

a separate individuality. Hence there was a distinct ceremonial for each

class. We will not attempt to give in detail the innumerable laws of these

three kinds of ceremonial; our attention will be directed solely to their

most characteristic customs, and to their most remarkable and interesting

aspects taken as a whole. We must altogether lay aside matters relating

specially to ceremonies of a purely religions character, as they are

connected more or less with the traditions and customs of the Church, and

belong to quite a distinct order of things.

"When the Germans, and especially the Franks," says the learned

paleographer Vallet de Viriville, "had succeeded in establishing their

own rule in place of that of the Romans, these almost savage nations, and

the barbarian chiefs who were at their head under the title of kings,

necessarily borrowed more or less the refined practices relating to

ceremonial possessed by the people whom they had conquered. The elevation

of the elected chief or king on the shield and the solemn taking of arms

in the midst of the tribe seem to be the only traces of public ceremonies

which we can discover among the Grermans. The marvellous display and the

imposing splendour of the political hierarchy of the Roman Empire,

especially in its outward arrangements, must have astonished the minds of

these uncultivated people. Thus we find the Frank kings becoming

immediately after a victory the simple and clumsy imitators of the

civilisation which they had broken up." Clovis on returning to Tours in

507, after having defeated Alaric, received the titles of _Patrician_ and

_Consul_ from the Emperor Anastasius, and bedecked himself with the

purple, the chlamys, and the diadem. The same principle of imitation was

afterwards exhibited in the internal and external court ceremonial, in

proportion as it became developed in the royal person. Charlemagne, who

aimed at everything which could adorn and add strength to a new monarchy,

established a regular method for the general and special administration of

his empire, as also for the internal arrangement and discipline of his

palace. We have already referred to this twofold organization (_vide_

chapters on Private Life and on Food), but we may here remark that,

notwithstanding these ancient tendencies to the creation of a fixed

ceremonial, the trifling rules which made etiquette a science and a law,

were introduced by degrees, and have only very recently been established

amongst us.

In 1385, when King Charles VI. married the notorious Isabel of Bavaria,

then scarcely fourteen years of age, he desired to arrange for her a

magnificent entry into Paris, the pomp and brilliancy of which should be

consistent with the rank and illustrious descent of his young bride. He

therefore begged the old Queen Blanche, widow of Philippe de Valois, to

preside over the ceremony, and to have it conducted according to the

custom of olden times. She was consequently obliged, in the absence of any

fixed rules on the subject, to consult the official records,--that is to

say, the "Chronique du Monastère de Saint-Denis." The first embodiment of

rules relating to these matters in use among the nobility, which had

appeared in France under the title of "Honneurs de la Cour," only goes

back to the end of the fifteenth century. It appears, however, that even

then this was not generally admitted among the nobility as the basis of

ceremonial, for in 1548 we find that nothing had been definitely settled.

This is evident from the fact that when King Henri III. desired to know

the rank and order of precedence of the princes of the royal blood, both

dukes and counts--as also that of the other princes, the barons, the

nobles of the kingdom, the constables, the marshals of France and the

admirals, and what position they had held on great public occasions during

the reigns of his predecessors--he commissioned Jean du Tillet, the civil

registrar of the Parliament of Paris, to search among the royal archives

for the various authentic documents which might throw light on this

question, and serve as a precedent for the future. In fact, it was Henri

III. who, in 1585, created the office of Grand Master of the Ceremonies of

France, entrusting it to Guillaume Pot, a noble of Rhodes, which office

for many generations remained hereditary in his family.

[Illustration: Fig. 385.--Herald (Fourteenth Century).--From a Miniature

in the "Chroniques de Saint-Denis" (Imperial Library of Paris).]

Nevertheless the question of ceremonial, and especially that of

precedence, had already more than once occupied the attention of

sovereigns, not only within their own states, but also in relation to

diplomatic matters. The meetings of councils, at which the ambassadors of

all the Christian Powers, with the delegates of the Catholic Church, were

assembled, did not fail to bring this subject up for decision. Pope

Julius II. in 1504 instructed Pierre de Crassis, his Master of the

Ceremonies, to publish a decree, determining the rank to be taken by the

various sovereigns of Europe or by their representatives; but we should

add that this Papal decree never received the sanction of the parties

interested, and that the question of precedence, even at the most

unimportant public ceremonies, was during the whole of the Middle Ages a

perpetual source of litigation in courts of law, and of quarrels which too

often ended in bloodshed.

It is right that we should place at the head of political ceremonies those

having reference to the coronation of sovereigns, which were not only

political, but owed their supreme importance and dignity to the necessary

intervention of ecclesiastical authority. We will therefore first speak of

the consecration and coronation of the kings of France.

Pépin le Bref, son of Charles Martel and founder of the second dynasty,

was the first of the French kings who was consecrated by the religions

rite of anointing. But its mode of administration for a long period

underwent numerous changes, before becoming established by a definite law.

Thus Pépin, after having been first consecrated in 752 in the Cathedral of

Boissons, by the Archbishop of Mayence, was again consecrated with his two

sons Charlemagne and Carloman, in 753, in the Abbey of St. Denis, by Pope

Stephen III. Charlemagne was twice anointed by the Sovereign Pontiff,

first as King of Lombardy, and then as Emperor. Louis le Débonnaire, his

immediate successor, was consecrated at Rheims by Pope Stephen IV. in 816.

In 877 Louis le Bègue received unction and the sceptre, at Compiègne, at

the hands of the Archbishop of Rheims. Charles le Simple in 893, and

Robert I. in 922, were consecrated and crowned at Rheims; but the

coronation of Raoul, in 923, was celebrated in the Abbey of St. Médard de

Soissons, and that of Louis d'Outremer, in 936, at Laon. From the

accession of King Lothaire to that of Louis VI. (called Le Gros), the

consecration of the kings of France sometimes took place in the

metropolitan church of Rheims, and sometimes in other churches, but more

frequently in the former. Louis VI. having been consecrated in the

Cathedral of Orleans, the clergy of Rheims appealed against this supposed

infraction of custom and their own special privileges. A long discussion

took place, in which were brought forward the titles which the Church of

Rheims possessed subsequently to the reign of Clovis to the exclusive

honour of having kings consecrated in it; and King Louis le Jeune, son of

Louis le Gros, who was himself consecrated at Rheims, promulgated a

special decree on this question, in anticipation of the consecration of

his son, Philippe Auguste. This decree finally settled the rights of this

ancient church, and at the same time defined the order which was to be

observed in future at the ceremony of consecration. From that date, down

to the end of the reign of the Bourbons of the elder line, kings were

invariably consecrated, according to legal rite, in the metropolitan

church of Rheims, with the exception of Henry IV., who was crowned at

Chartres by the bishop of that town, on account of the civil wars which

then divided his kingdom, and caused the gates of Rheims to be closed

against him.

[Illustration: Fig. 386.--Coronation of Charlemagne.--Fac-simile of a

Miniature in the "Chroniques de Saint-Denis," Manuscript of the Fourteenth

Century (Imperial Library of Paris).]