CHAPTER XXIII

HISTORY

OF THE

MOORISH EMPIRE

IN EUROPE

BY

S. P. SCOTT

AUTHOR OF “THROUGH SPAIN”

Corduba famosa locuples de nomine dicta,

Inclyta deliciis, rebus quoque splendida cunctis

HROSWITHA, PASSIO S. PELAGII

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. III.

[Illustration: DROIT ET AVANT]

PHILADELPHIA & LONDON

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

1904

COPYRIGHT, 1904

BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

Published March, 1904

_Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U. S. A._

CONTENTS OF VOLUME III.

CHAPTER XXIII

INFLUENCE OF THE MOORS ON EUROPE THROUGH THE EMPIRE OF

FREDERICK II. AND THE STATES OF SOUTHERN FRANCE

PAGE

Permanence of Arab Ideas in the South of Europe--Social

Corruption--Revolts against the Papacy--Antagonism

of the Holy See and the German Empire--Consolidation

of the Papal Power under Innocent III.--Civilizing

Agencies in Sicily--Influence of the Normans

as Heirs of the Arabs--Birth of Frederick II.--Character

of Innocent III.--Genius of the Emperor--His

Reforms--System of Jurisprudence--Commerce--Legislation--The

University of Naples--The Medical

School of Salerno--Character of Frederick--His

Court--The South of France--Its Early Civilization--Cosmopolitan

Character of its Population--Its

Wealth, Intelligence, and Profligacy--Debased Condition

of the Clergy--The University of Montpellier--The

Troubadours--The Albigenses--Their Defiance

of Rome--A Crusade is preached against Them--They

are annihilated--Cruelty of the Crusaders--Parallel

between the Civilization of Sicily and Languedoc--Survival

of the Philosophical Principles and Opinions

of the Thirteenth Century 1

CHAPTER XXIV

THE SPANISH JEWS

Influence of the Semitic Race on Civilization--Enterprise

of the Ancient Jews--Their Eminent Talents--Their

Power during the Middle Ages--Their Universal

Proscription--Their Condition under the Moors of

Spain--Their Extraordinary Attainments--Their Devotion

to Letters--Their Academies--Rabbis as Ambassadors of

the Khalifs--Learned Men--Poets, Physicians, Statesmen,

Philosophers--Maimonides: His Genius and His Works--His

Character--Preponderating Influence of the Spanish Jews

in Government and Society--Their Necessity to the Ruling

Classes--They are driven to Usury--Their Prosperity--They

are favored by Alfonso X. and Pedro el Cruel--Their

Proficiency in Medicine--Obligations of Mediæval and

Modern Science to the Jews--Their Wonderful Survival

under Oppression--Their Exile from the Peninsula--Their

Sufferings--The Taint of Hebrew Blood in the Aristocracy of

Spain and Portugal 105

CHAPTER XXV

THE CHRISTIANS UNDER MOSLEM RULE

Scarcity of Information concerning the Tributary

Christians--Supremacy of the Church under the

Visigoths--Independence of the Spanish Hierarchy--Its

Wealth--Civil Organization of the Christians under the

Moors--Their Privileges--Restrictions imposed upon

Them--Freedom of Worship--Churches, Monasteries, and

Convents--Conditions in Sicily--Greater Severity of

the Laws in that Island--Anomaly in the Ecclesiastical

Government of Spain--The Khalif the Virtual Head of

the Church--Abuse of His Power--Results of the Arab

Occupation of Septimania--Increased Authority of the

Spanish Hierarchy resulting from its Isolation--Social

Life of the Christian Tributaries--Their Devotion to Arab

Learning--They are employed by the Khalifs in Important

Missions--Innate Hostility of Moslem and Christian--Number

and Influence of the Renegades--The Martyrs--Causes of

Persecution--Contrast between the Maxims and Policy of the

Two Religions--Impediments to Racial Amalgamation 177

CHAPTER XXVI

THE MORISCOES

State of the Kingdom after the Conquest--Superiority

of the Moors--Policy of the Crown--Introduction of

the Holy Office--Administration of Talavera--His

Popularity--He is superseded by Ximenes--The Two Great

Spanish Cardinals--Their Opposite Characters--Influence

on Their Age--Violence of Ximenes--He burns the Arabic

Manuscripts--Insurrection of the Moriscoes--Rout

in the Sierra Bermeja--Bigotry of Isabella--The

Moors under Charles V.--Persecution by the Clergy

and the Inquisition under Philip II.--War in the

Alpujarras--Ibn-Ommeyah--Operations of Don John of

Austria--Removal of the Moors of Granada--Death

of Ibn-Ommeyah--Ibn-Abu becomes King--Siege of

Galera--Atrocities of the Campaign--Fate of

Ibn-Abu--Condition of the Moriscoes in Spain--They are

Exiled by Philip III.--Their Sufferings--Effect of their

Banishment upon the Prosperity of the Kingdom 218

CHAPTER XXVII

GENERAL CONDITION OF EUROPE FROM THE VIII. TO THE XVI.

CENTURY

Effects of Barbarian Supremacy on the Nations of

Europe--Rise of the Papal Power--Character of the

Popes--Their Vices and Crimes--The Interdict--Corrupt

Practices of Prelates and Degradation of the

Papacy--Institution of the Monastic Orders--Their Great

Influence--Their Final Degeneracy--Wealth of the Religious

Houses--The Byzantine System--Its Characteristics--Power

of the Eunuchs--Splendor of Constantinople--Destruction of

Learning--Debased Condition of the Greeks--The People of

Western Europe--Tyranny of Caste and its Effects--Feudal

Oppression--Life of the Noble--His Amusements--The Serf and

his Degradation--His Hopeless Existence--Treatment of the

Jews--Prevalence of Epidemics--Religious Festivals--General

Ignorance--Scarcity and Value of Books--Persecution of

Learning--The Empire of the Church--Its Extraordinary

Vitality 324

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE HISPANO-ARAB AGE OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE

Intellectual Stagnation of Europe during the Period

of Moslem Greatness--High Rank of Scholars in

Spain--Attainments of the Khalifs--Character of Arab

Literature--Progress of Science--The Alexandrian

Museum--Its Wonderful Discoveries--Its Contributions

to Learning--Its Influence on the Career of the

Mohammedans--The Arabic Language--Poetry of the

Arabs--Its General Characteristics--Theology and

Jurisprudence--History--Geography--Philosophy--Libraries

--Rationalism--Averroes--Mathematics--Astronomy--Al-Hazen

--Gerbert--Botany--Alchemy--Chemistry--Pharmacy--Albertus

Magnus, Robert Grossetête, and Roger Bacon--Medicine

and Surgery--Ignorance of their Theories and

Scientific--Application in Mediæval Europe--Prevalence of

Imposture--Fatality of Epidemics--Great Advance of the

Arabs in Medical Knowledge--Hospitals--Treatment of Various

Diseases--The Famous Moslem Practitioners--Contrast between

the Christian and Mohammedan Systems--Enduring Effects

of Arab Science--Its Example and Benefits the Creative

Influence of Modern Civilization 423

CHAPTER XXIX

MOORISH ART IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

Absolute Ignorance of Art among the Original

Arabs--Their Debt to Antiquity--Their Early

Architecture--Materials--Massive Character of the First

Edifices of the Moslems--The Horseshoe Arch--Its Phallic

Derivation--Progress of Artistic Embellishment--Its

Wonderful Diversity--Byzantine Influence--Employment

of Encaustic Tiles--Mosaics of the Mosque of

Cordova--Stuccoes--Their Composition and Infinite

Variety of Form--Stalactitic Pendentives--Woodwork--Its

Beautiful and Intricate Designs--Disappearance of

Arabic Architectural Monuments in Sicily--Military

Structures of Mohammedan Spain--Typical Form of the

Mosque--Its Hebrew Origin--Manifold Derivation of

Hispano-Arab Architecture--Development of Art in

Moorish Spain--Its Three Epochs--The Alhambra its

Culmination--Representation of Animal Forms--Painting and

Sculpture--Mural Decoration--The Industrial Arts--Working

of Metals--Arms--Engraved Gems--Ceramics--The Leathern

Tapestry of Cordova--Textile Fabrics--Calligraphy and

Illumination--Destruction of the Artistic Remains of the

Moors 534

CHAPTER XXX

AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE OF THE EUROPEAN

MOSLEMS; THEIR MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND AMUSEMENTS

Disappearance of the Memorials of Arab

Civilization--Agricultural System of the Spanish

Moors--Its Wonderful Perfection--Irrigating

Apparatus--The Tribunal of the Waters--The Work of

Ibn-al-Awam--Universal Cultivation of the Soil--Mineral

Resources of the Peninsula--Manufactures--The Great

Moslem Emporiums of the Mediterranean--Commerce--Its

Extensive Ramifications--Articles of Traffic--Commercial

Prosperity of Sicily--The Magnetic Needle--Gunpowder

and Artillery--War--Coinage--Characteristics of the

Khalifs--Demoralization of the People--The Bath--General

Prevalence of Superstition--Social Life of the

Moslems of Europe--Privileges of Women--Polygamy and

Morals--Slavery--Amusements--The Game of Chess--Other

Pastimes--Dances--Music--Equestrian Sports--The

Bull Fight--The Tilt of Reeds--The Course of the

Rings--Hawking--Peculiarities of Hispano-Arab

Civilization--The Crusades--Their Effect on

Christendom--Unrivalled Achievements of the Moors in

Europe--Conclusion 595

HISTORY

OF THE

MOORISH EMPIRE IN EUROPE

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXIII

INFLUENCE OF THE MOORS ON EUROPE THROUGH THE EMPIRE OF FREDERICK

II. AND THE STATES OF SOUTHERN FRANCE

1194–1250

Permanence of Arab Ideas in the South of Europe--Social

Corruption--Revolts against the Papacy--Antagonism of the Holy

See and the German Empire--Consolidation of the Papal Power

under Innocent III.--Civilizing Agencies in Sicily--Influence

of the Normans as Heirs of the Arabs--Birth of Frederick

II.--Character of Innocent III.--Genius of the Emperor--His

Reforms--System of Jurisprudence--Commerce--Legislation--The

University of Naples--The Medical School of Salerno--Character

of Frederick--His Court--The South of France--Its Early

Civilization--Cosmopolitan Character of its Population--Its

Wealth, Intelligence, and Profligacy---Debased Condition of the

Clergy--The University of Montpellier--The Troubadours--The

Albigenses--Their Defiance of Rome--A Crusade is preached

against Them--They are annihilated--Cruelty of the

Crusaders--Parallel between the Civilization of Sicily and

Languedoc--Survival of the Philosophical Principles and Opinions

of the Thirteenth Century.

The extraordinary impulse to scientific investigation, to historical

research, to the development and perfection of the industrial arts,

to the extension of commerce, to the improvement of the social and

economic conditions which are so intimately connected with the

comfort and happiness of mankind, imparted by the Saracen kingdoms

of Southern Europe, was far from being destroyed by the absorption

or conquest of their provinces or by the final extinction of their

empire. The progress of their humanizing influence upon other

nations had been slow and imperceptible. The philosophical ideas

and principles advanced by the Arab universities were necessarily

hostile to the doctrines of Christianity, to the opinions of the

Fathers, to the inspiration of an infallible Pope, to the imperious

claims of ecclesiastical supremacy. In consequence of their heretical

tendency, they were perused in secret; and the diligence with which

this prohibited literature was studied is revealed by the number of

sects which arose, and the defiance of Papal authority, which is the

distinguishing characteristic of European annals during the first half

of the thirteenth century. The doctrines taught at Cordova and Palermo

inspired those audacious mediæval reformers, far in advance of their

age, whose aspirations for intellectual and religious liberty were

promptly and mercilessly extinguished at the stake and on the scaffold.

The spirit of resistance to Papal aggression, corruption, and tyranny,

temporarily checked, in time revived, and found permanent expression in

the bold and revolutionary theories of the Reformation. These great and

radical changes were not spontaneously effected; the causes of their

development had been in silent operation for many centuries.

The schools of Moslem Spain and Sicily had long been the resort of

students, ambitious of literary attainments and distinction, from every

country in Europe. Princes of Castile and France had for generations

enjoyed the benefits of the educational advantages to be obtained in

the Spanish Peninsula. The proximity of the polished and luxurious

towns of Sicily to the ancient seat of Roman greatness and power had

produced a corresponding effect, less evident and less durable, it is

true, but still most civilizing and beneficial, upon the ferocious

barbarism which had succeeded the cruel and shameless vices of the

Cæsars. The sacerdotal order had profited more largely than all others

by the learning of the Mohammedans. Pope Sylvester II., the most

accomplished ecclesiastic of his time, whose prodigious acquirements

caused him to be accused of sorcery and led to his assassination by

poison, was educated at the University of Cordova. Roger Bacon, another

reputed wizard, had deeply imbibed the heretical but fascinating

opinions of the sages of the Tagus and the Guadalquivir. In almost

every European monastery, whose inmates, corrupted by wealth and

depraved by sensual indulgence, had abandoned the ascetic habits of the

cloister, the infidel works of the Arabian philosophers were studied

with curiosity and delight by jovial monks, long strangers to the vows

inculcated as cardinal precepts by the regulations of their order.

With the secular clergy, whose ostentatious luxury was proverbial, the

case was even worse. While considerations of policy and self-interest

prevented the avowal of principles totally at variance with the tenets

of their profession, the fact that those principles were entertained

was far from being a secret. The influential prelates of the Church,

ignorant or heedless of the prejudicial effects which must inevitably

ensue from familiarity with the works of the Moslem philosophers, did

not vigorously attempt to suppress them until the mischief they had

produced was almost irreparable. The unbelief and moral obliquity

of the clergy reacted upon their flocks. The latter saw--first with

surprise, then with indifference--the ill-concealed skepticism and

open immorality of their spiritual counsellors. As a result of this lax

and inconsistent behavior, society became permeated with hypocrisy. The

popular tales of the Middle Ages, many of them undoubtedly founded on

fact, indicate only too plainly the estimation in which the clergy were

held by the people. That such pictures of ecclesiastical life could be

drawn and published without interference or punishment shows not only

the extent of the evil, but the recognition of its existence by every

class of the community. The licentious stories of the mediæval writers

were read or repeated with delight both in the palace of the noble and

the hovel of the serf. One of the most remarkable of these collections

owes its origin to the patronage of Louis XI., the Most Christian King

of France.

Although the clergy, and especially the members of the monastic

orders, were, in these facetious productions, uniformly represented

as objects of hatred and contempt, the practice of the vices and

weaknesses imputed to them was evidently so common to their calling as

not even to arouse those feelings of resentment which would naturally

arise from accusations so nearly affecting their piety and virtue.

So little attention, indeed, was paid to these disclosures of the

habits of ecclesiastics, that their recital formed one of the ordinary

diversions of conventual life, and the Gesta Romanorum, which long

maintained a questionable celebrity, is a monkish compilation. When the

spiritual guides of a community are deliberately held up to ridicule

as the incarnation of all that is vile, rapacious, and bestial, their

usefulness as directors of the public conscience and arbiters of

private morals is at an end. Their pernicious example was not lost

upon the people, although their influence for good declined. Universal

corruption became the most prominent trait of every rank of society.

The most glaring acts of impiety remained unrebuked. National faith

and personal obligations were alike unblushingly violated. Every

revolting crime was committed by those whose means were sufficient

to appease sacerdotal venality and purchase temporary absolution. No

epoch in European history presents a more distressing picture of social

demoralization, of royal perfidy, of priestly hypocrisy, of universal

wickedness, than the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But while this

condition of affairs was productive of widespread moral debasement,

it was not wholly an unmixed evil. The weakening of the sentiments of

fatuous reverence with which things denominated sacred had for ages

been regarded, awakened among the masses a spirit of intellectual

independence. The right of the exercise of private judgment began to

be first tolerated, and afterwards tacitly recognized. Then originated

the great moral revolution which, subsequently checked and almost

overwhelmed by the power of the Papacy and disgraced by scenes of

horror to which history affords no parallel, ended in the momentous

struggle of the sixteenth century, and the permanent triumph of reason

over dogma, of intelligence over ecclesiastical authority.

But it was not only by the removal of superstitious prejudice, through

the comparison of creeds, the judicious employment of the principles

of philosophical criticism, and the public exposure of the lives of

the clergy, that this great and beneficial change was accomplished.

The commerce of the European Moslems was almost coextensive with the

world at that time familiar to mariners. The excellence and beauty of

their wares, unequalled by those of any other nation, were eagerly

sought after by the wealthy and luxurious inhabitants of Christian

countries. Merchants, traders, and students had spread far and wide

accounts of the marvels to be seen beyond the Pyrenees,--opulent

and flourishing communities, where the meanest citizen was in the

daily enjoyment of comforts unattainable as luxuries by the greatest

potentates of Christendom; edifices whose decorations surpassed in

richness the wildest conceptions of Oriental fiction; vast plantations,

where fruits, unknown to colder climes, grew in prodigal abundance;

caravansaries and markets crowded with a profusion of costly fabrics,

and resounding with a Babel of strange and guttural tongues;

institutions of learning frequented by tens of thousands of students,

whose attainments--extraordinary in a world of ignorance--were believed

to have been secured by an unholy compact with the infernal powers.

The existence of this civilization in close proximity to the

semi-barbarous Mediterranean nations and the salutary experience of its

benefits could not fail to produce upon the latter a deep and lasting

impression. The Crusades, also, to some extent had enlarged the minds

of the fierce warriors of the West. Their respect had been inspired

by the equal valor and superior intelligence of their Mohammedan

adversaries; and a Saracen was no longer, as formerly, considered a

demon incarnate, destitute of honor, insatiable of blood, incapable of

compassion, ignorant alike of the courtesies of war and the suggestions

of humanity. These various moral and physical agencies, acting through

the maintenance of maritime intercourse and the promiscuous association

with travellers of every description, gradually produced effects long

unperceived and unappreciated by the class whose material interests

were most vitally endangered.

The dawn of the thirteenth century witnessed the outbreak and the

arrest of two most significant movements of the human mind, destined

to exercise immense influence on the intellectual character and

political destiny of Europe. The one appeared in Sicily; arose under

the auspices and was supported by the power of the Emperor Frederick

II.,--that prodigy of mediæval learning and diplomacy, great by birth,

and, through the hereditary traditions of his line, still greater

through the talents with which he was endowed and the accomplishments

that adorned his character; a colossal figure among the pygmy soldiers

and churchmen of his time; a combination of opposite and eccentric

qualities; brave but treacherous, impetuous but crafty; a skeptic, and

an unrelenting persecutor of heretics; at one time heading a crusade

for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre; at another marshalling Saracen

armies against the partisans of the Pope; a vassal of the Holy See,

and an open ally and friend of the infidel; a professed champion of

Christianity, while endeavoring to wrest from its acknowledged head

that spiritual dominion which invested him with unlimited power over

the lives, the fortunes, and the ultimate destiny of men; legislator,

troubadour, author, naturalist; “a poet in an age of schoolmen, a

philosopher in an age of monks, a statesman in an age of crusaders.”

The other intellectual revolution against ecclesiastical traditions

and Papal despotism originated in the sunny lands of Provence and

Languedoc, between the Mediterranean and the Pyrenees. That region,

early overrun and colonized by the Saracen, had long remained subject

to the Mohammedan princes of Spain. Although nominally Christian,

its population was deeply infected with heterodox and atheistical

opinions. The country had never lost the characteristics peculiar to

the Moslem conqueror,--the intelligent and persevering cultivation

of the soil, the venturesome spirit of commercial enterprise, the

development and profitable adaptation of every natural resource, the

pride of ostentatious luxury, the profound distrust of the female

sex, which condemns its members to the seclusion of the harem.

Amidst the freedom and gayety of its semi-Oriental cities, sectaries

of every creed lived unquestioned and undisturbed. Polygamy was

practised without concealment or reproach; scarcely a castle of count

or baron was without its numerous seraglio. Education was general,

and remarkable in its scope and efficiency when contrasted with the

ignorance of contemporaneous societies. The famous University of

Montpellier, a manifestation of the intellectual ideas and spirit

which pervaded the South of France, was for generations a monument of

the progress and erudition of the inhabitants of Languedoc. Among the

public teachers were many Jews and Mohammedans, who, in addition to

the profound and varied learning of the schools of Cordova, brought

to the notice of a curious and speculative race theories that boded

ill to the ecclesiastical establishment, which, stained with every

hideous and disgusting vice, was fast sinking into universal and

deserved contempt. The practice of improvisation,--the composition of

extemporaneous poetry,--derived from the imaginative but unlettered

tribes of the Arabian Desert, and for generations the delight of

the capitals of Moorish Spain, found here its most fascinating

expression and its highest development. Next to the prince himself,

the troubadour was the most important personage of the Provençal

court. His accomplishments, often acquired by association with the

Moslem, were the envy of the cavalier and the horror of the priest.

His elegant manners and poetical talents gained for him the passionate

adoration of high-born ladies, whose beauty he celebrated in florid and

licentious verse. His satires were often directed against the clergy,

whose lives too readily furnished cause for ridicule and censure.

With him occasionally travelled the jongleur, who, to the recitation

of amorous chants, added the charm of harmonious minstrelsy. The

ditties of the troubadours, like the coarse and facetious tales of

this and subsequent periods, afforded an unfailing index of popular

taste and prevalent opinions. In their lays the ecclesiastic is almost

invariably an object of derision. His hypocrisy, his licentiousness,

his greed, are depicted in language which admits of no palliating

or ambiguous interpretation. He is constantly represented as the

proverbial embodiment of all that is execrable and repulsive. If a

butt for ridicule was needed, to give an appropriate climax to a story

composed for the amusement of the court, the monastery could be relied

upon to furnish an inexhaustible number of subjects, whose foibles

were at once recognized by the delighted and scoffing auditors. The

sacred calling of the ministers of religion was constantly made the

occasion of ribald pleasantry; the tricks of practical jokers were

played with impunity upon every incumbent of the sacerdotal dignity,

from the haughty bishop to the cowled and barefooted friar. Even the

populace, in whom the spirit of superstitious reverence is always the

first to be awakened and the last to be destroyed, shared in an equal

degree the feelings of their superiors. The vagrant rhymer, declaiming

his sarcastic verses in the streets or by the wayside, was always sure

of a liberal and appreciative audience. Such a condition of society

indicates a certain degree of intellectual progress which can only

result from independence of thought and moral irresponsibility of

action. The extraordinary opinion began to be advanced and largely

accepted that the investiture of the priesthood, of itself, conveyed

no special virtue which dispensed with the rules of social morality or

conferred immunity from public criticism. This idea, at variance with

all the traditions of a Church which attached the highest importance

to the rigid observance of mere formalities, was followed by others

of even more novel and startling character. The unbroken intercourse

with the Moslem principalities of the Peninsula had introduced into a

country, whose people might, in some degree, justly claim consanguinity

with the Saracens of Andalusia, the arts, the philosophy, and the

erudition which had long embellished the accomplished courts of the

Western Khalifate. Hence arose the popularity of the works of Averroes,

and the general familiarity with the pantheistic ideas of Indian

origin, subsequently adopted by the heretical sects which, from time

to time, sprang up to vex the Papal orthodoxy of Europe. With their

importation into France, the doctrines of the Arab philosophers were

invested with a far broader significance than had ever been claimed

by those who first inculcated their truths. The gay ballads of the

South assumed a greater license of sentiment and language than their

prototypes, whose freedom had provoked the censure of the Mohammedan

society of the Guadalquivir, little inclined to displays of prudish

morality. It was from such beginnings that were derived the suggestions

of those memorable religious revolutions which, headed by Wyclif in

England, Huss in Bohemia, and Luther in Germany, in defiance of the

tremendous power of the Vatican, impressed an indelible seal upon the

character and belief of so large a portion of the inhabitants of the

civilized globe. The influence that Troubadour and Trouvère--poets

and minstrels--during their incessant wanderings exerted upon the

provincial dialects in which their productions were composed, and the

extensive distribution of the latter, did more than all else to form

and perfect the language of France. It was the same in Italy. That

country also indirectly owes the sweet and musical accents of its

graceful idiom, equally adapted to the descriptions of the historian,

the representations of the dramatist, and the melodious versification

of the poet, to a race foreign in all its characteristics and

traditions to that quarter of the world where it exercised its greatest

power. As with poetry, so it was with other manifestations of genius.

Much of the architecture of Southern Europe, and especially those

buildings devoted to religious worship, present unmistakable evidences

of their Moorish origin; and thus the law of Mohammed, while it failed

to retain its dominion over the minds of men, was enabled to perpetuate

the memory of the arts, which it promoted in the construction of

magnificent and imposing edifices raised for the celebration of the

rites of another and an inimical religion. In a thousand ways, the

march of intellectual improvement, suggested by the presence and

example of Moslem skill and learning, was accelerated in the provinces

of the South of France. The active minds of the inhabitants of the

valley of the Rhone devoured with eagerness the extravagant tales of

Moorish fiction, and their curiosity was stimulated by the study of the

maxims of Plato and Aristotle contained in Arabic versions of those

writers. Their manners insensibly became softened, their ideas were

enlarged, their tastes were cultivated; they no longer regarded the

torture of heretics and the massacre of infidels as conformable to the

precepts of a religion based upon “peace and good-will to men.” With

deep disgust they threw off their allegiance to the Church of Rome.

Woman, hitherto a slave, subjected to the caprice of an imperious and

irresponsible master, was raised by the hand of chivalry and made the

cherished companion, if not the equal, of her lord. Semi-barbarous

Europe looked with wonder upon a land so blessed by nature and adorned

by art; where the remains of classic antiquity were taught in the same

schools with the botany of Syria and the chemistry of Spain; where

a philosophic spirit of inquiry had awakened the noblest aspirations

of the human intellect, and where knightly courtesy had replaced the

rudeness of the sword.

This advanced civilization had, unfortunately, come four centuries too

soon. The fears of the Papacy were excited, and a ferocious crusade,

which spared neither rank, age, sex, nor infirmity, was published

against the unfortunate Albigenses. Upon the ruins of one of the most

refined societies that had arisen to instruct mankind since the days of

Athenian greatness, a society which embodied all that was interesting,

learned, profitable, or entertaining in human life, was erected the

Inquisition, the bane of science, and the implacable foe of civil and

religious liberty.

The great contest of the thirteenth century between the Empire and

the Holy See for the mastery of the world derived its origin from the

barbarian occupation of Italy. The imperial dignity of the Cæsars

embodied, as is well known, not only its supreme exercise, but

the prestige and the mysterious power which attached to the place

of Pontifex Maximus, the prototype of the Papacy. That power had

been solemnly confirmed, and materially enlarged, by the ambition

and politic measures of Constantine. The occasional employment of

the Bishop of Rome as arbiter of the differences between the Sees

of Constantinople and Alexandria had magnified the importance and

insensibly extended the jurisdiction of his office. Aspiring prelates,

who held their court on the banks of the classic Tiber, in sight of the

stupendous memorials of ancient civilization, soon began to arrogate

to themselves a preponderance in the determination of secular matters

to which their comparatively obscure predecessors had advanced no

claim. The texts of Scripture were invoked and interpreted to confirm

their pretensions. In addition to the alleged vicarious sovereignty

vested in them by the traditional choice of the Saviour, they asserted

that the privileges and authority enjoyed by the Pontifex Maximus were

theirs by the right of inheritance. They insisted, moreover, that as

celestial matters were of far greater importance to mankind than any

connected with the affairs of a transitory life, the sacredness of

their exalted position conferred extraordinary prerogatives, and that

the imperial power was subordinate to, and, under some circumstances,

actually merged into, the pontifical dignity. By thus shrewdly taking

advantage of every circumstance which could either strengthen its

influence or extend its jurisdiction, the Holy See subjected to its

tyrannical and irresponsible sway a far more extensive and populous

territory than had ever paid reluctant tribute to the masters of

imperial Rome. Excommunication, anathema, and interdict, the means by

which this tremendous authority was enforced, were moral instruments

which appealed with irresistible force to the fears of a superstitious

age.

The barbarian invasions, which swept away the last vestige of imperial

greatness, introduced the heretical doctrines of Arius into Southern

Europe. The religious antagonism resulting from the incessant clash

of adverse opinions was perpetuated by the mutual jealousies of king

and bishop, until the accession of Charlemagne practically united in

the hands of that emperor the temporal and sacerdotal powers,--the

dominion of the earth, and the control of an order whose members

were universally regarded as mediators with heaven. With his death

the exercise of the exalted prerogative of spiritual jurisdiction

reverted to the Papacy. The claim to its enjoyment was never afterwards

successfully urged by any monarch who was entitled, by right of

inheritance, to the dignities and privileges of the Carlovingian

empire. By degrees, the resistless influence of intellectual

superiority, quietly, but none the less powerfully exerted, began to

manifest itself. It was to the fact that the Church monopolized all the

learning of early mediæval times, even more than to the reverence that

attached to the holy calling of its ministers, that its boundless power

over the most truculent and merciless barbarians is to be attributed. A

mysterious and exaggerated importance was ascribed to that profession

whose members held communion with past ages; who called down the

blessings or the maledictions of celestial beings in a tongue unknown

to the vulgar; who communicated, in unintelligible characters, with

the learned and the wise of distant nations; and who, in the seclusion

of the laboratory, indulged in pursuits condemned by the canons of

their faith, but occasionally productive of results whose character,

remarkable for that epoch, not infrequently acquired for the monkish

chemist the unenviable and perilous title of conjuror. The literary

and scientific attainments acquired in the cloister bore, however, no

comparison to the erudition of those countries where Saracen energy and

munificence had long promoted the exercise and expansion of the highest

faculties of the human intellect. The knowledge possessed by the clergy

was only extensive by contrast with the impenetrable ignorance by which

they were surrounded, and which it was their interest to diligently

propagate and maintain.

The era which witnessed the climax of Papal supremacy was coincident

with the most thoroughly concerted and menacing attempt at its

overthrow ever directed by any secular potentate. The birth of

Frederick II. preceded the election of Innocent III. to the Holy See

only three years. In the deadly struggle that arose between these two

mighty antagonists,--a struggle which was far more political than

religious, and whose tempting prize was the dominion of the earth,--the

influence of the Saracen was a powerful, and, in many instances, a

predominant factor. Moslem laws, institutions, and customs had for

centuries, amidst communities hostile in origin and belief, survived

alike the existence of their own dynasties and the domination of their

conquerors. Tribal dissensions and hereditary enmity had prompted

and facilitated the destruction of the splendid Mohammedan empire in

Sicily. In its turn, the Norman kingdom, after a prolonged and stormy

existence, in which the Moorish tributaries played no inconsiderable

part, lost its identity; and, by the marriage of Constance, the mother

of Frederick II., with Henry VI., was merged into the German Empire.

During the great political and moral revolutions which disposed of

crowns and repeatedly changed the destinies of the island, the Arab

element of the population maintained an undisputed superiority in

arts, in commerce, in literature,--in short, in all professions and

employments save that of war alone. The semi-barbarian conqueror, whose

only passports to distinction were the dexterity with which he wielded

lance and sword and the undaunted courage with which he faced tenfold

odds, early recognized the advantages of that intellectual power which

enabled his Moorish vassals to cope with, and overreach, in both

trade and diplomacy, the astute politicians of Christian Italy. This

exotic population, notwithstanding the successive calamities which had

afflicted it, exhibited through long periods of time no extraordinary

diminution of numbers, a fact no doubt largely attributable to the

prevalence of polygamous customs. In the centre of the island many

Moorish settlements, defended by impregnable fortresses, subsisting

by pastoral occupations, and whose comparative poverty offered little

inducement to invasion, remained in tranquillity and in the enjoyment

of a rustic independence. In the great seaports, on the other hand,

the Moslem tributaries retained under foreign domination all of the

refinement and much of the splendor which had distinguished the

luxurious court of the emirs. In these vast emporiums, where were

constantly assembled the merchants of every Christian and of every

Mohammedan state, a numerous, motley, and industrious people pursued,

without oppression or hinderance, all the avocations of thriving

mercantile communities. The peculiar adaptability of the genius of

the Norman to novel social and political conditions, a quality which

was the main source of his prosperity and greatness, was never more

prominently displayed than after the conquest which transferred the

sceptre of Sicily from one race of foreign adventurers to another. No

more striking antagonism of national customs, religious prejudices,

habits, and traditions could be conceived than that existing between

the victor and the vanquished. One came from the borders of the Arctic

Circle; the original home of the other was in the Torrid Zone. Both

traced their lineage to tribes steeped in barbarism and idolatry;

but the Norman, though he had changed his system of worship, still

retained many of its objectionable and degrading features, while the

Arab professed a creed that regarded with undisguised abhorrence the

adoration of images and the invocation of saints. In the arts of

civilization, there was no corresponding advance which could suggest

resemblance or justify comparison. Poverty, ignorance, ferocity, still

remained the characteristics of the Norman, as when, with a handful

of resolute companions, he scattered to the winds the armies of the

Sicilian Mussulman. The latter, however, if inferior in endurance and

martial energy to his conqueror, was possessed of accomplishments which

justly entitled him to a prominent rank in the community of nations.

No circumstance of honor, of distinction, of inventive genius, was

wanting to exalt his character or magnify his reputation. The fame

of his military achievements had filled the world. His commercial

relations had made his name familiar to and respected by remote

and jealous races, to whom the Christian kingdoms of Europe were

unknown. His civil polity was admirably adapted to the character and

necessities of the people its laws were intended to govern. Under those

laws, administered by a succession of great princes, Moslem society

had become opulent, polished, and dissolute beyond all example, but

eventually and inevitably enervated and decadent. Political and social

disorganization had not, however, entirely destroyed the prestige

earned by ages of military glory and intellectual pre-eminence. The

schools of Cordova had been swept away by hordes of African fanatics.

Her libraries had been scattered or destroyed. Her incomparable palaces

had been levelled with the ground or had succumbed to the gradual

decay to which they had been abandoned by ferocious chieftains, alike

ignorant of the arts and indifferent to the claims of civilization.

But the glory of the fallen metropolis had been reflected upon

the provincial capitals of a distracted and dismembered monarchy.

Malaga, Granada, Toledo, Seville, were still celebrated as seats of

learning; civil war had interrupted but not extinguished the pursuit

of science; a taste for letters counteracted in some degree the thirst

for blood which prompted the atrocities of tribal hate and hostile

faction; and the chivalrous intercourse established at intervals

between the two races contending for national superiority afforded a

happy if a deceptive image of affluence and security. ‘The Sicilian

Mohammedans, while the vicissitudes and calamities of their history

presented in miniature a general resemblance to those experienced

by their brethren of the Spanish Peninsula, were never subjected

to such repeated and overwhelming disasters as fell to the lot of

the subjects of the Ommeyade dynasty and of the principalities which

inherited its enmities, and the shattered fragments of its once vast

and populous but cumbersome empire. The Norman acquisition of Sicily,

unlike the Spanish Reconquest, was accomplished with surprising ease

and rapidity. In the former instance there was but little of that

indiscriminate ferocity which was characteristic of the conflicts of

the Middle Ages, and especially of these where religious interests

were directly involved. The experience of the conquerors--obtained in

many lands--enabled them to appreciate the value of the monuments of a

highly developed civilization, whose promoters were soon to pass under

their sceptre. For this reason there was no ruthless spoliation of

cities, no indiscriminate devastation of a fertile country which had

been reclaimed by infinite toil and perseverance from an unpromising

prospect of marsh, ravine, and precipice. The tangible results of three

hundred years of national progress and culture were transmitted, with

but little impairment, to the victorious foreigner. These advantages

were at once grasped and appropriated with an avidity absolutely

phenomenal in a people whose career had been dictated by the predatory

instincts of the bandit, and whose manners had been formed amidst the

license of the camp, the superstition of the cloister, and the carnage

of the field.

Norman Sicily exhibited, to all intents and purposes, a prolongation,

under happier auspices, of that dominion to which the island owed its

prosperity and its fame. The influence of Moorish thrift, capacity,

and skill was everywhere manifest and acknowledged. Its silent

operation facilitated its progress and increased its power. The

maritime interests of the island were in the hands of the Moslems;

they controlled the finances; they negotiated treaties; to them was

largely confided the administration of justice and the education of

youth. Their integrity was acknowledged even by those whose practices

appeared most unfavorable by contrast; their versatile talents not

infrequently raised them to the highest and most responsible posts of

the Norman court. That court is declared by contemporary historians to

have equalled in splendor and culture those of Cairo and Bagdad. This

comparison, while the highest encomium that could be pronounced upon

its grandeur and brilliancy, also denoted unmistakably the Oriental

influence which pervaded it. Great dignitaries, with pompous titles

and retinues imposing in numbers and magnificence, exercised the

principal employments of the crown. A rigid system of subordination

and accountability was established, governing the conduct of the minor

officials in their relations to their superiors and to the sovereign.

The gradations in rank of these civil magistrates were numerous, and

their respective duties plainly and accurately defined. The system of

fiefs had never obtained in Northern Italy, owing to the extraordinary

growth of maritime enterprise, the mutual jealousies engendered by

commercial rivalry, the prejudices of the Lombard population, hostile

to the restraints and abuses which the adoption of that system implied,

the foundation of many independent and wealthy communities,--conditions

naturally incompatible with the maintenance of an establishment based

upon obligations of military service and baronial protection. In

Apulia and Northern Sicily, however, Norman domination transplanted,

to some extent, the laws and customs of Western Europe, which found

a congenial soil in provinces already familiar with the exactions

of Saracen despotism. But the feudal system of Norman rule had lost

much of its original severity, and had been curtailed of those

oppressive privileges with difficulty endured even in countries for

centuries accustomed to the suffering and degradation they entailed.

These modifications were so extensive and radical as to be almost

revolutionary in their nature. The disputes of lord and vassal, of

noble and suzerain, were decided by a court of judicature. Villeinage,

as recognized elsewhere in Europe, was practically unknown. While

the villein was attached to the glebe and passed with its transfer,

he could not be persecuted with impunity; he could own property and

alienate it, make wills, ransom his services, and, in many other

respects, exercise the rights of a freeman, while still subject to the

disabilities of a serf. The days of compulsory labor enjoined upon

him were prescribed by law. His testimony was admissible in the trial

of causes; he could not be illegally deprived of the results of his

industry when his duties to his lord had been faithfully discharged;

and, under certain circumstances, he was permitted to enter the

clerical profession, whose opportunities might open to an aspiring

zealot a career of the highest distinction.

The barbarian prejudices of the Norman conqueror survived in many

institutions inherited from ages of gross superstition and ignorance.

Among these were the absurd and iniquitous trials by fire, water, and

judicial combat, prevalent in societies dominated partly by priestcraft

and partly by the sword. But more correct ideas of the true character

of evidence and its application, acquired from association with a

people familiar with the codes of Justinian and Mohammed, eventually

mitigated the evils produced by such irrational procedure; and, while

not entirely abandoned, its most offensive features were gradually

suffered to become obsolete. In other respects, the administration of

justice--for the excellence of its system, for the rapidity with which

trials were conducted, for the opportunity afforded the litigant

for appeal and reversal of judgment--was remarkable. Invested with a

sacred character, the judge, in the honor of his official position,

was inferior to the king alone. His person was inviolable. No one

might question his motives or dispute his authority under penalty of

sacrilege. The head of the supreme court of the kingdom, by which

all questions taken on appeal from the inferior tribunals were

finally adjudicated, was called the Grand Justiciary. His powers and

dignity claimed and received the highest consideration. None but men

conspicuously eminent for learning and integrity were raised to this

exalted office. The Grand Justiciary, although frequently of plebeian

extraction, took precedence of the proud nobility, whose titles,

centuries old and gained in Egypt and Palestine, had already become

historic. A silken banner, the emblem of his office, was carried

before him. In public assemblies and royal audiences he sat at the

left hand of the sovereign. Only the constable, of all the officials

of the crown, approached him in rank. These unusual honors paid to

a dignitary whose title to respect was due, not to personal prowess

or to hereditary distinction, but to the reverence attaching to his

employment, indicate a great advance in the character of a people

which, but a few years before, acknowledged no law but that of physical

superiority, no tribunal but that of arms. In the other departments of

government--in finance, in legislation, in the regulations of commerce,

in the protection and encouragement of agriculture, in the maintenance

of order--the Norman domination in Sicily presented an example of

advanced civilization to be seen nowhere else in Europe, except in

the Moorish principalities of Spain. The system of taxation not only

embraced regular assessments, but authorized such extraordinary

contributions as might be required for the construction of great

public works or demanded by the exigencies of war. A powerful and

well-equipped navy enforced the authority and protected the rights of

the Norman kings in the Mediterranean. In the classification of orders,

ecclesiastics were not, as elsewhere, granted extraordinary privileges

by reason of their sacred profession. Those of rank were enrolled among

the feudatories; the inferior clergy were relegated to the intermediate

grade of subjects placed between the noble and the serf; all were,

equally with the laity, responsible for infractions of the laws. The

monarch was the head of the Church under the Pope; the office of

Papal legate, which he usurped, was assumed, by a convenient fiction,

to have been transmitted by inheritance; he exercised the rights

of the erection of bishoprics, the presentation of benefices, the

translation of prelates, the exemption of abbeys; he imposed taxes on

the priesthood, and, when occasion demanded, did not hesitate to seize

and appropriate property set aside for the uses of public worship. In

his dominions, the Pope, while the nominal head of Christendom, was

merely a personage of secondary importance, with little real influence

and with no prestige save that derived from his venerated title and

from his residence in that city which had once given laws to the world.

The Papacy, it is true, had not yet fully established those portentous

claims to empire which subsequently brought the most remote countries

under its jurisdiction; but its aspiring pontiffs had already laid the

foundations of their despotism; and this defiance of their authority,

at the very gates of the capital of Christendom, was fraught with the

most vital consequences to the future peace and welfare of Europe.

No people presented greater variety in manners, language, habits, and

religion than that of Norman Sicily. The mingling of strange tongues,

the constant recurrence of picturesque costumes, denoted the presence

of many distinct nationalities. In general, although close relations

were maintained and intermarriages were common, the different races

were distributed in separate quarters and districts, and existed as

castes. Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, as well as the harsh and barbaric

dialects of Germany and France, were spoken; the laws of each nation

were suffered to prevail, except when they conflicted with the supreme

authority; enforced proselytism and religious persecution were unknown;

and, in a society of such a diversified character, it was impossible

that national prejudice could obtain a permanent foothold. The tendency

of public opinion, as well as the policy of the government, was towards

the indulgence of religious and intellectual freedom. In no respect was

this liberality so apparent as in the treatment of the Jews. Elsewhere

in Europe they were considered the legitimate prey of every oppressor;

liable to be transferred by entire communities, like so many cattle,

from one petty tyrant to another; robbed and tortured with impunity;

incapacitated from invoking the protection of the laws; rendered

powerless by centuries of systematic oppression to exert the right of

self-defence or to successfully appeal to arms in an age of anarchy and

violence. In Sicily, under the Normans, an enlightened public sentiment

dictated the measures pursued in the treatment of an enterprising but

unfortunate people. Their usefulness to the state was recognized by

the immunities they enjoyed. For generations, no badge of infamy or

servitude made them conspicuous in the crowded streets; no onerous

taxes were laid upon them as a class; they shared, in large measure,

the rights and privileges of other citizens; no tribunal was permitted

to discriminate against them in the dispensation of justice; they were

not prohibited from exercising the profession of bankers, but the rate

of interest they might exact was limited to ten per cent.

The lustre of Saracen civilization was rather heightened than tarnished

by the Norman conquest. The stability and confidence which the rule of

the victors produced more than compensated for the damage inevitably

resulting from their military operations. The supremacy of law was

everywhere established. Tribal animosity, which had been the curse

of Moslem society, was suppressed, if not entirely eradicated. The

seaports increased rapidly in extent and opulence. Palaces of equal

dimensions and beauty, but more substantial in their construction,

replaced the airy and picturesque villas which had displayed the taste

of the Moorish princes. Massive stairways afforded access to the broad

stone quays encumbered with the merchandise of the Mediterranean.

The narrow and tortuous thoroughfares of the Orient gave way to wide

and well-paved avenues adapted to the commercial necessities of a

numerous trading population. As formerly, under Greek and Moslem,

Palermo exhibited, in the highest degree, the influence and progress

of the arts of civilization. Its citadel, defended by every resource

of military science, was of such extent as to merit of itself the

appellation of a city. Here were situated the warehouses, the bazaars,

the baths, the markets, the churches, and the mosques. Above it rose

the castle reared by the Normans, the solid blocks which composed its

walls being covered with arabesques and inscriptions. The residences

of the merchants and the nobility were conspicuous for their number

and elegance; the royal palace was in itself a marvel of architectural

grandeur and sybaritic luxury. But the edifices which struck the

imagination of the stranger most forcibly were the two great shrines

respectively allotted to Christian and to Moslem worship. Sectarian

rivalry had exhausted itself in their construction and adornment. The

mosque was one of the most superb in all Islam. Its beauty was enhanced

by its rich tapestries, and by the exquisite coloring and gilding it

exhibited in the delicate carvings which embellished its interior. But

grand and beautiful as it was, the Christian cathedral was generally

conceded to surpass it in those material attractions which appeal most

strongly to the senses of the enthusiastic and the devout. Arab writers

have vied with each other in celebrating the majesty and splendor of

this famous temple. The combined skill of the Moorish and the Byzantine

artist had been laid under contribution in its embellishment. The

walls were incrusted with gold, whose dazzling brilliancy was relieved

by panels of precious marble of various colors bordered with foliage

of green mosaic. The columns were sculptured with floral ornaments,

interspersed with inscriptions in Cufic characters. The lofty cupola,

covered with glistening tiles, was one of the landmarks of the capital,

and, projected against the cloudless sky, was the most prominent object

which caught the eye of the expectant mariner. Around the city, rising

in terraces, like the seats of an amphitheatre, were the suburbs,

verdant with the luxuriant vegetation of every country that could be

reached by the enterprise of man, through whose leafy screen appeared

at intervals the gayly painted villas of the merchant princes or the

sumptuous and imposing palaces of the Norman aristocracy.

Amidst the numerous measures originated and brought to maturity by the

new domination, it is remarkable that no especial encouragement was

afforded to institutions of learning. A tradition exists of the academy

of the great Count Roger, but it is only a tradition. No national

university was founded to perpetuate the fame or to exalt the benefits

of regal patronage. No general plan of promoting the education of

the masses was inaugurated. The Jewish and Saracen schools, however,

still survived; they were often the recipients of royal generosity, and

were resorted to by such Christians as were desirous of profiting by

the valuable instruction they afforded. As elsewhere in Christendom,

the clergy were the general depositaries of knowledge,--an advantage

which they thoroughly understood, and were by no means willing to

voluntarily relinquish. In one respect alone their power was seriously

curtailed. The spurious medicine of the time, as practised under

the sanction of the Holy See, had raised up a herd of ignorant and

mercenary ecclesiastical charlatans. These operated by means of chants,

relics, and incense; and their enormous gains were one of the chief

sources of revenue to the parish and the monastery, and a corresponding

burden on the people. King Roger abolished this abuse, and required

an examination, by experienced physicians, of all candidates for

the profession of medicine and surgery, restricting those whose

superstition was ineradicable or whose learning was deficient to the

clandestine ministrations of the shrine and the confessional.

In the subjugated race, which had inherited the wisdom and experience

of many ages and peoples, is to be discerned the principal, and indeed

the indispensable, factor of Norman prosperity and civilization. Its

characteristics had been deeply impressed upon the various regulations

which controlled the destinies of the island; they reappeared in the

military organization, in the civil polity, in the social customs, in

the architectural designs, even in the religious ceremonial, of the

conquerors. The invaders were but a handful in number; but the moral

influence they wielded, through invincible valor, prodigious personal

strength, and inflexible tenacity of purpose, at once gave them almost

undisputed ascendency. These qualities, however, could not, unaided,

found or maintain a flourishing state eminent in those arts which

contribute to the welfare and opulence of nations. Oriental craft,

refinement, and learning were able, however, to supply the deficiencies

of whose existence the rude and unpolished Western adventurers were

thoroughly cognizant. The Moslem stood high in the confidence and favor

of the Norman princes. Quick to appreciate and meet the exigencies

of every occasion, his prowess was invaluable in the suppression of

anarchy and the establishment of order. Saracen cavalry were enrolled

by thousands in the Norman armies. Saracen councillors stood in the

shadow of the throne. Saracens collected taxes and administered

the public revenues. They conducted, with the artful diplomacy

characteristic of their race, important negotiations with foreign

powers. Their religious assemblies were protected from intrusion and

insult with the same solicitude which assured the inviolability of

Christian worship. The unobstructed enjoyment and disposal of real

and personal property was accorded to them by the laws. Their impress

on the customs of social and domestic life was deep and permanent.

The prevailing language of court and city alike was Arabic. Eunuchs,

in flowing robes and snowy turbans, swarmed in the palaces of king,

noble, and bishop. Dark-eyed beauties of Moorish lineage filled the

harems of the martial and licentious aristocracy. The kadi, retaining

the insignia and authority of his original official employment, was

an important member of the Sicilian judiciary. He not only determined

the causes of his countrymen, but was frequently the trusted adviser

of the monarch. From the summits of a hundred minarets which seemed to

pierce the skies, the muezzin, shrilly intoning the prescribed verses

of the Koran, summoned the followers of Mohammed to prayer. As was

Palermo, such were the other Sicilian cities,--Messina, Syracuse, Enna,

Agrigentum.

Moslem institutions, with the powerful influences resulting from their

universal adoption, thus maintained an overwhelming preponderance

throughout the provinces of the Norman kingdom. Even in Apulia and

Calabria, the original seat of the new dynasty, the same conditions

prevailed. The centre of the Papal power and of the various states

subject to its immediate jurisdiction--a jurisdiction already

important, but not as yet exercised with undisputed authority--could

not fail to be profoundly impressed by the proximity of this

anomalous empire; where Christian symbols and Koranic legends were

blended in the embellishment of cathedrals; where the crucifixion

and the mottoes of Mohammedan rulers were impressed together upon

the coinage of the realm; where eminent prelates owed investiture,

rendered homage, and paid tribute to the secular power; where Moslem

dignitaries not infrequently took precedence of Papal envoys; and the

hereditary enemies of Christendom fought valiantly under the standard

of the Cross. Nor was the effect of this ominous example confined to

localities where daily familiarity had caused it to lose its novelty.

The traders who visited the remote and semi-barbarous courts of Europe,

the Crusaders who from time to time enjoyed the hospitality of the

Sicilian cities, the returned adventurers who had served in the armies

of the princely House of De Hauteville, all spread, far and wide,

exaggerated and romantic accounts of the strange and sacrilegious

customs of the Norman monarchy. Ecclesiastics crossed themselves with

dismay when they heard of the honors lavished upon infidels, whose

co-religionists had profaned the Holy Sepulchre, evoking gigantic

expeditions which had depopulated entire provinces and drained the

wealth of credulous and fanatic Europe. Others, whom study and

reflection had made wise beyond the age in which they lived, saw, with

open indifference and concealed delight, in this defiance and contempt

of Popish tyranny, the dawn of a brighter era, the prospect of the

ultimate emancipation of the human mind. The progress of the mental

and moral changes which affected European society, acting through the

intervention of Norman influence in the political and religious life

of the continent, was gradual, indeterminate, and long imperceptible,

but incessant and powerful. The universal deficiency of the means of

information, the dearth of educational facilities, which promoted the

dependence of the masses upon the only class capable of instructing

and improving them, the terrible penalties visited upon heresy,

deferred for nearly three hundred years the inevitable outbreak of

an intellectual revolution. The principles on which that revolution

was based, although at first discussed furtively and in secret, in

time became so popular as to endanger the empire of the Church and to

seriously impair its prestige.

The influence of the royal House of De Hauteville was extended,

magnified, perpetuated, by the imperial House of Hohenstaufen. The

traditions of the Arab, inherited by the Norman, were transmitted to

and became the inspiration of the German. The genius of Frederick II.

impressed itself indelibly upon the entire Teutonic race. It must not

be forgotten that the most formidable revolt against Papal tyranny and

corruption broke out in Saxony. The new German Empire owes largely its

commanding position in Europe and its exalted rank in the scale of

civilization to the talents, the energy, and the transcendent wisdom of

the greatest monarch of mediæval times.

The fierce struggle between the Papacy and the Empire for universal

rule began with the ascendency of the House of Hohenstaufen, in the

beginning of the twelfth century. The princes of that House, eminent

for valor and diplomacy, early displayed a spirit of insubordination

towards the Holy See which augured ill for the political supremacy

which had begun to be the leading object of its ambition. The Papal

power, not yet consolidated, nor even fully defined, was unable

to successfully oppose to the encroachments of the haughty German

sovereigns those measures which afterwards proved so effective

against the recalcitrant monarchs of Europe in the settlement of

disputes involving its doctrines and its authority. The chaotic state

of European politics made it impossible for the Pope to enlist the

aid of any potentate able to withstand the tyrants of the North,

whose ambition aimed at the absorption of St. Peter’s patrimony, as

their insolence had already menaced the independence of his throne.

Diplomatic negotiation had proved of no avail. The once formidable

weapon of excommunication was treated with contempt. No other resource

remained. The influence of the Empire attained its maximum during the

reign of Henry VI.; and the Pope, surrounded on every side by powerful

and determined enemies, seemed about to be degraded to the rank of an

imperial vassal, when the sudden death of the Emperor, and the election

of one of the greatest of the Supreme Pontiffs ever raised to the chair

of the Holy See, reversed the political and ecclesiastical conditions,

to all appearances firmly established, and upon whose maintenance

so much depended, and opened the way for a train of calamities

unequalled in their atrocious character by any acts of tyranny that

have ever stifled independent thought or retarded the progress of human

civilization.

Innocent III., when elected to the Papal dignity, was already a man

of mature years, wide experience, and established reputation. His

abilities as a scholar and a diplomatist, his familiarity with the

principles of theology and law, had made his name known and respected

throughout Europe, while the influence he exerted in the councils of

the Church, long before his exaltation to its highest office, rendered

him eminently conspicuous in the ecclesiastical affairs of Italy.

With his extensive erudition and versatility of character were united

talents for intrigue and administration equal to the most exacting

requirements of statesmanship and command. Insinuating in address,

jovial in conversation, by turns haughty and affable in manner, his

unrivalled acquaintance with human nature, and his delicacy of tact,

enabled him to regulate his conduct and his demeanor according to the

circumstances of his political or religious environment. Conscious of

his commanding genius, his insatiable ambition was not content with the

enjoyment of the traditional honors and material advantages of Papal

sovereignty; it aimed at the establishment of an autocracy, free from

the interference of earthly potentates, nominally subject to celestial

power alone, but, in fact, absolutely irresponsible and despotic.

Such was the formidable antagonist who, at the close of the twelfth

century, confronted the majesty of the German Empire, represented by

an infant less than four years of age. The minority of that infant,

afterwards Frederick II., was one of degrading dependence and constant

humiliation. His mother was compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty

of the Pope in order to retain even nominal authority in her own

hereditary dominions. Her death left her child the ward of the Holy

See, in addition to being its vassal, and, in consequence, the entire

ecclesiastical polity of his kingdom was changed; the clergy were

declared independent of the secular power; grants of real property,

confiscated by preceding emperors and confirmed by long prescription,

were revoked, and the lands restored to the Church; quarrels among the

turbulent nobles were industriously fomented, to afford a pretext for

Papal interference and an extension of ecclesiastical jurisdiction,

for the nominal purpose of reconciling enmities and preserving order;

the Jews and Moslems, left without a protector and subjected to

horrible persecution, were driven to the desperate alternative of

exile or brigandage. As a result of these impolitic measures, Sicily

became oppressed by anarchy far more deplorable and vexatious than

that produced by the crimes and follies of Saracen misgovernment. Its

population diminished; its prosperity declined; its commerce almost

disappeared. With the returning ascendency of the priesthood, the

evils inseparable from that condition--ignorance, intolerance, private

corruption, organized hypocrisy--once more became predominant. The

irruption of a horde of greedy and insatiable ecclesiastics into the

rich Sicilian benefices brought with it all the abuses of Papal Italy.

Simony was openly practised. Some priests lent money at ruinous rates

of interest; some kept taverns; others derived enormous incomes from

even more questionable places of public entertainment. The impurity

of their lives and the blasphemies in which they often indulged soon

caused them to forfeit the respect of their parishioners, as had long

been the case at Rome. They were so careless of the outward observances

and duties enjoined by their profession as to neglect the service of

the altar until their conduct became a scandal. It was a matter of

common complaint that the sacred vestments were ragged and filthy; the

chalices unpolished; the sacramental wine sour; the Host, the visible

symbol of God, unprotected from insects and covered with dust. The

habits of the clergy were incredibly vile. The more exalted the rank

and the more conspicuous the prelate, the greater was the example of

pecuniary corruption and social depravity. The revenues of the Church,

extorted from a reluctant and impoverished people, were squandered

in the purchase of fine equipages, in sumptuous banquets, and upon

rapacious courtesans. The duties of religion were forgotten in the

general scramble for power. The palace of Palermo was the rallying

point of these ecclesiastical politicians, whose broils and intrigues,

so inconsistent with their calling, frequently disturbed the peace of

the city, and whose vices were the reproach of a population which had

never been able to boast of a high standard of personal morality.

The imperious spirit of Frederick, unwilling to brook interference

in the affairs of his kingdom even from his feudal superior, first

disclosed itself when he was but fourteen years old in a dispute with

the clergy of Palermo, who appealed from his decision to the Pope. His

defiance of the Pontiff was subsequently of such frequent occurrence as

to be regarded as one of the leading principles of his administration.

Innocent seems to have viewed with almost paternal indulgence the

disobedience of a youth of excellent parts and undaunted resolution,

who was subject to his authority not only as a member of the Christian

communion, but in the double capacity of ward and vassal. His inability

to appreciate the true character of Frederick was never so apparent

as when he committed the fatal error which raised that prince to the

greatest throne in Christendom. The paltry concessions extorted as

the price of this great dignity were an indifferent compensation for

the series of misfortunes its bestowal entailed upon Europe,--the

rancorous hostility of faction; the perpetuation of intestine conflict,

with its inseparable evils, widespread anarchy, the destruction of

cities, the waste of provinces, the massacre of non-combatants, the

obstruction of national progress; and the partial return to the

barbarous conditions of former ages induced by the relentless strife of

Guelf and Ghibelline. It is not the object of this work to minutely set

forth the events of that mighty struggle. The relations of the Holy See

and the Empire are only important as they may have affected indirectly

the influence of the reforms instituted by the great Emperor; reforms

whose foundation had been laid by two preceding dynasties of widely

different character, and whose principles derived their origin from

the colonization of Sicily by a nation utterly foreign to the laws and

traditions of contemporaneous Europe.

Born under a southern sky, accustomed from childhood to daily

intercourse with the most intellectual society of the age, Frederick

II. retained to the last a decided predilection for Sicily, the land

of his birth. The classic memories and romantic history of that

famous island exerted over his active mind a most potent and lasting

influence. He had no sympathy with, and less inclination for, the

rude and barbarous customs, the coarse festivities, the ferocity,

drunkenness, and bestiality of that country which was the original

seat of his royal House, the realm whence he derived the proudest and

most grandiloquent of his numerous titles. Educated by two Moorish

preceptors, under the superintendence of a cardinal,--a curious

circumstance which indicates that infidel learning had not yet entirely

succumbed to ecclesiastical prejudice,--he in time became proficient in

all the arts and accomplishments possessed by that remarkable people

whose erudition and industry were admired and feared by the dominant

race whose members the fortune of arms had made the depositaries of

power and the interpreters of orthodoxy. This early, intimate, and

constant association with Mohammedans and Greeks, in each of whose

systems of government the temporal and spiritual functions were vested

in one individual, undoubtedly suggested to the mind of the Emperor

the stupendous project of merging the Papal office in the imperial

dignity,--a combination of two despotisms under a single head, whose

powers, of uncertain and indefinable extent, could not be questioned

without incurring the penalties of both treason and sacrilege, and

whose jurisdiction would eventually embrace the habitable world. The

political and judicial systems instituted and perfected by Frederick

II., remarkable in themselves, become almost marvellous when considered

in relation to the era of their establishment, the difficulties

encountered in their application, and the antagonism of the privileged

classes whose designs they interfered with and whose abuses they

were intended to correct and restrain. Two questions of paramount

importance engaged the attention of this enlightened prince, questions

containing in themselves the solution of every administrative and

every social problem,--the promulgation of law and implicit obedience

to its mandates, and the adoption of measures which might secure the

greatest attainable happiness of the people. To the accomplishment of

these noble and praiseworthy ends the talents and energy of the great

ruler were constantly devoted,--in hours of triumph and in hours of

humiliation; when engrossed with the cares of a vast and seditious

empire; in the deserts of Syria; in the very face of death; in the

bitterness of spirit induced by shattered dreams of long-nourished

ambition.

The evils incident to a protracted minority had manifested themselves

with more than ordinary prominence in the Kingdom of Sicily. The

supervision of the Pope had, as usual, been uniformly exercised

for the benefit of the ecclesiastical order and the aggrandizement

of the Holy See. A fierce and rapacious aristocracy, impatient of

restraint and eager for innovation, defied the laws, and wreaked

their hereditary vengeance upon each other with every circumstance

of merciless atrocity. The mass of the population, probably composed

of more diversified elements and nationalities than any community

of equal numbers in the world, unable to prosper and scarcely able

to live, endeavored to obtain, by different methods, exemption from

the intolerable persecution of their enemies. The Greek, with the

craft of his race, attached himself to the faction which, for the

time being, enjoyed the best prospect of success. The Jew purchased

a temporary immunity by the voluntary surrender of the greater part

of his possessions. Alone among his companions, the Saracen took up

arms. His martial spirit and the numbers of his countrymen obtained

from his turbulent and disorganized adversaries a tacit recognition of

independence, which the rugged nature of the country that contained his

strongholds did not a little to confirm. In the effort to re-establish

the royal authority, the Saracens rendered invaluable assistance; they

were among the first to assemble around the imperial standard; without

their co-operation the result would have been uncertain; and their

valor and fidelity preserved the empire of Frederick, as that of their

fathers had consolidated the power of the Norman domination.

The jurisprudence of the Emperor was based upon and included the system

established by the Normans. Its rules were modified and improved as

experience had suggested would be expedient and profitable. The main

objects of the laws were the extinction of feudal tyranny, and the

enjoyment of private liberty so far as it was not inconsistent with

the prerogatives of the crown. No monarch of ancient or modern times

was more solicitous for the happiness of his subjects, and none ever

more fully appreciated the fact that the test of a nation’s greatness

is the benefit derived by mankind from its works, its history, its

example. The difficulties encountered in the formation of a uniform

code which could be enforced in such a cosmopolitan society as that of

Sicily seemed insuperable. Feudal rights and ecclesiastical exemptions;

the privileges of the Jews and Saracens, founded on prescription

and confirmed by tribute; the jealous contentions of many forms of

religious belief; the perpetual encroachments and usurpations of

pontifical authority; the skepticism of Moslem philosophers, and the

fanatical rage of persecuting zealots,--all of these antagonistic

rights, claims, prejudices, and prerogatives it was necessary to

correct, rearrange, amend, and embody in one practical, efficient,

and harmonious system. The task, though stupendous, was not beyond

the abilities and constructive genius of the great law-giver. The

turbulence of the nobles was firmly restrained. All members of the

clerical order were rendered amenable to the laws of the realm in cases

which concerned the dignity and traditions of the empire. In matters

relating to marriage alone they were permitted to exercise jurisdiction

over those who had not taken the tonsure; the assent of the Emperor

was necessary to the validity of an election; the prelate as well as

the layman was compelled to assist in defraying the expenses of the

government; nor, in any way, could he escape the discharge of duties

enjoined by the Imperial Code or plead immunity from burdens necessary

to the security of the state or the enforcement of order. The law of

mortmain, framed under the direction of the Emperor, preceded the

famous statute of Edward I., of which it was the prototype, nearly a

century. Upon every individual the maxim was continually impressed that

the sovereign was the fountain of justice, authority, and mercy. The

criminal procedure, founded on Norman precedents, was singularly free

from the legal atrocities generally prescribed by feudal regulations;

the penalty of death was only inflicted for the most heinous offences;

mutilation was seldom permitted except in the cases of incorrigible

criminals; torture, while recognized, was one of the rarest of

punishments. The courts were invested with every outward circumstance

of official pomp and dignity. From the decision of the supreme tribunal

there was no appeal; even in the monarch vexatious litigation was

systematically discouraged; judicial bribery was considered a crime of

peculiar infamy; and the practice of holding the magistrate responsible

for the maintenance of peace in his district was a most efficient check

upon the violence and depredations of professional malefactors.

In the statutes relating to the detection and punishment of heresy, the

character of Frederick appears to singular and manifest disadvantage.

His long wars with the Pope, his close intimacy with infidels, his

oppression of ecclesiastics, the repeated acts of sacrilege of which he

was guilty, the blasphemous speeches constantly upon his tongue, the

profane and mysterious studies in which he delighted, his employment

of and confidence in wizards and astrologers, demonstrate beyond

contradiction the weakness of his faith or the profoundness of his

hypocrisy. But the latitude of opinion and conduct which he allowed

himself was in an inverse ratio to that which he vouchsafed to others.

No familiar of the Inquisition ever pursued heretics with greater

zeal or pertinacity than the famous monarch whose name is constantly

associated with all that is liberal, enlightened, and profitable in

the annals of human progress, an inconsistency all the more glaring

in a prince whose favorite sentiment was, “The glory of a ruler is

the safe and comfortable condition of the subject.” History has never

been able to advance a satisfactory or even a plausible explanation

of this anomaly; its cause, at this distance of time, must remain

forever unknown, and may be ascribed, for want of a better solution,

to the innate perversity of the human mind, which often by a single

glaring defect obscures the brilliant lustre of a character eminently

conspicuous for every princely quality, for every generous impulse, and

for every literary and artistic excellence.

His commercial regulations were among the principal sources of

Frederick’s power and greatness. His genius perceived at a glance the

vast advantages which must result from an interchange of commodities

with maritime nations; and, in the application of this principle, every

facility was afforded those bold spirits whose energy the expectation

of gain or the love of adventure directed into the channels of trade.

Treaties more liberal in their provisions and more profitable in their

effects than any which had heretofore been adopted by the powers of the

Mediterranean were concluded with the greatest mercantile communities

of Europe,--Constantinople, Venice, Genoa,--as well as with Damascus

and Alexandria and the Moorish principalities of Africa and Spain.

The intimacy maintained by Frederick with Mohammedan sovereigns

contributed greatly to the prosperity of his dominions. The Sultan

of Egypt was his friend. The Emir of Tunis was his tributary. With

the other Moslem princes he was on the best of terms. Treaties of

commerce, framed for mutual advantage, were frequently negotiated with

these potentates, who were only too willing to discriminate against

other European monarchs in favor of the Emperor of Germany. In 1241,

on the arrival of the Imperial ambassadors, Cairo was illuminated in

their honor. The trade of Sicily extended to India. The luxuries of

the Orient were brought to the ports of Palermo and Messina. In their

markets the arms, the jewels, the stuffs, the porcelain, of countries

remote from civilization found a ready sale. In return, immense

quantities of grain and manufactured articles were exported. It has

been established upon undoubted authority that white female slaves of

Christian birth formed no inconsiderable portion of the commodities

dealt in by the subjects of Frederick II.

The fortunate geographical situation of Sicily, her magnificent

harbors, the productiveness of her soil, the excellence and variety

of her manufactures, had, in all ages, been factors of paramount

importance in her commercial development. That development was now

materially aided by the reciprocal observance of humane and courteous

regulations, hitherto unrecognized in the intercourse of nations

during the Middle Ages. Merchants in foreign ports were received with

lavish hospitality; distrust of strangers gradually subsided; and

unfortunates, cast away at sea, were no longer compelled to endure both

the violence of the elements and the heartless rapacity of ferocious

outlaws or amateur freebooters. In the widely distributed commerce of

the monarchy the crown enjoyed no insignificant share. The ships of

Frederick were anchored in every harbor; his warehouses were filled

with the choicest and most costly fabrics of every country; and his

agents, conspicuous for their enterprise and daring, collected, in

the distant and almost unknown regions of the Orient, articles whose

sale would most contribute to the benefit of the royal treasury. The

principles of free trade seem to have been first promulgated in the

maritime code of Sicily. The Emperor, however, in the application of

those principles, evinced no reluctance in discriminating against his

own subjects, whose vessels were not permitted to clear for foreign

ports until those of the crown had been a certain time at sea. Every

branch of commerce paid tribute to the imperial merchant. His ships

carried pilgrims to the Holy Land. The grain he annually sent to

Africa returned an enormous and certain profit. His trade with India

brought into European markets objects of unfamiliar uses and elaborate

workmanship, whose rarity often increased their great intrinsic

value. His friendly relations with Mohammedan princes, begun during

the Crusade and terminated only by his death, made him frequently the

recipient of magnificent presents. We read that on one occasion an

eastern potentate sent him a dozen camels laden with silver and gold.

All ships trading to Palestine were required to bring back a cross-bow

for each of their cables, a measure which, while it replenished the

royal arsenals with the most effective weapons of the age, was free

from the dangers of official incapacity or corruption, and entailed no

expense on the government. A great fleet of galleys, commanded by the

Genoese admiral Spinola, maintained the naval power of the kingdom and

protected the coasts from the depredations of pirates.

In the internal administration of the kingdom, the most progressive and

equitable ideas of commercial honor and common advantage prevailed.

No duty could be levied on articles of necessity transported from

one province to another. While monopolies were not forbidden, they

were restricted to the crown, and the oppression resulting from this

measure in other countries was not felt by the subjects of Frederick.

Annual fairs were held in all the principal cities; markets existed

everywhere. Taxes were apportioned according to the wealth of the

district where they were to be collected. Constant war made these

impositions onerous at times, but there was some relief in the

knowledge that the clergy were forced to contribute their share to

the public burdens, an inconvenience from which they were elsewhere

exempt. The coinage was one of the purest, the most convenient, the

most beautifully executed that had ever been put in circulation by

any government. Agriculture, still largely in the hands of the Arabs,

was carried to the highest perfection. Every plant or tree, whose

culture was known to be profitable and which could adapt itself to

a soil of phenomenal fertility, was to be found in the gardens and

plantations of Sicily. The regulations of the kingdom concerning the

rural economy of its people were minute and specific, even paternal, in

their character. They were especially exact in details when directing

how the royal demesnes should be administered. Records were kept of

the crops produced in each district. Inventories of all the stock,

poultry, grain, and fruit were made each year; the methods of their

disposition and the prices they brought were noted on the public

registers. The very uses to which even the feathers of the domestic

fowls were destined was a matter of official inquiry. The breeds of

horses, asses, and cattle were improved; the greatest care was taken

of these animals. Food, which after experiment was found to be the

most nutritious, was adopted; and the Emperor, whose interest in these

matters was stimulated by the profit he derived from his stables,

personally scrutinized their management with the most assiduous care.

The supervision exercised by government officials over all occupations

was most precise, and must have often proved vexatious. Weights and

measures were prescribed by law, and any departure from honest dealing

in this respect was visited with the severest penalties. Officers

were appointed in every town for the detection of false weights and

the sale of spurious merchandise. The laws of hygiene were understood

and enforced with a degree of intelligence unknown to many European

communities even at the present day. Unwholesome provisions could not

be exposed for sale in the markets. Trades offensive to the senses or

injurious to public health were prohibited within the walls of cities.

A depth was prescribed for graves, that the exhalations proceeding

from them might not contaminate the air. No carrion was permitted to be

left on the highways.

In questions of legislation, as well as in those relating to

political economy, the kingdom of Sicily was far in advance of its

contemporaries. The constitution of England, and especially the

organization of the House of Commons, owe much to the Sicilian

Parliament. While the duties of its members were ordinarily confined

to the registering of royal edicts and the imposition of taxes, it

presents the first example of a truly elective, representative assembly

that is mentioned in history. From the institutions of Frederick, his

relative, Alfonso X. of Castile, appropriated many of the legislative

and judicial provisions of Las Siete Partidas,--a compilation for which

that monarch is principally entitled for his fame. France and Germany

also ultimately experienced the imperceptible but potent impulse

communicated to society by the supremacy of law over theology, which

had its beginning in Sicily during the thirteenth century.

Extensive and important as were the reforms of Frederick, it was

from the munificent and discerning patronage extended to science and

literature that is derived his most enduring claim to the gratitude

and commendation of posterity. The impressions imparted by Moslem

taste, in the prosecution of early studies, during the formation of

his character, never lost their power. His court was frequented by the

most accomplished Jews and Arabs of the age. They were the favorite

instructors of youth. Their opinions, drawn from the sources of classic

and Oriental learning, were heard with respect and awe, even by those

who dissented from their creeds and deprecated their influence. They

filled the most responsible and lucrative offices of the government.

Admitted to friendly and confidential audiences with the sovereign,

who, himself an excellent mathematician, delighted to pose them with

abstruse problems in geometry and algebra, their philosophy was

regarded with signal disfavor by distinguished prelates that daily,

in halls and antechambers, impatiently awaited the pleasure of the

Emperor. So fond was Frederick of these intellectual diversions, that

he sent certain questions for solution to the Mohammedan countries

of Africa and the East; but no one was found competent to answer

them until they reached the court of one of the princes of Moorish

Spain. One of the most accomplished of linguists, Frederick sedulously

encouraged the study of languages throughout his dominions. Arabic,

Hebrew, and Greek were understood and spoken by all who made any

pretensions to thorough education. Naples and Salerno were the most

famous seats of learning in that epoch,--at the former was the

University established by the Emperor; the Medical College of Salerno

is justly celebrated as one of the most extraordinary academical

institutions that has ever existed. The Faculty of the University

was composed of the most eminent scholars who could be attracted by

ample salaries, the prospect of literary distinction, and the certain

favor of an enlightened monarch. The resources of all countries were

diligently laid under contribution to insure the success of this noble

foundation. The popularity of Frederick with the Moslem princes of the

East gave him exceptional facilities for the acquirement of literary

treasures. The collections of Egypt and Syria and of the monasteries

of Europe were ransacked for rare and curious volumes with which to

furnish the library of the great Neapolitan college. No city was

better adapted to the necessities of a large scholastic institution

than Naples. Its situation in the centre of the Mediterranean, the

salubrity of the climate, the cheapness and variety of its markets,

offered unusual inducements to poor and ambitious students desirous of

an education. Their interests were protected and their security assured

by special and rigorous laws. Extraordinary precautions were taken to

prevent their being molested during their journeys to and fro. The

prices which might be charged for lodging were clearly and definitely

established. Provision was made for loans, at a nominal interest, to

such scholars as did not have the funds requisite to successfully

prosecute their studies. The preparatory schools of the kingdom were

conducted with equal care and prudence, and nowhere else in the world,

in that age, could educational advantages of a similar character be

enjoyed as in the Sicilian dominions of the Emperor.

Great as it was, the reputation of the University of Naples has been

eclipsed by the superior renown of the Medical College of Salerno.

There the study of surgery and medicine was pursued under the eyes

of the most learned and distinguished practitioners of every nation

familiar with the healing art. Ignorance of any language could scarcely

be an impediment to the student, for instruction was given in Latin,

Greek, German, Hebrew, Arabic. Scientific methods were invariably

observed in its curriculum. The prevalent superstitions, which,

encouraged by the clergy, appealed to the credulous fears of the

vulgar, were contemptuously banished from its halls. While the School

of Salerno had existed since the eighth century, and, from its origin,

chiefly owed its fame and success to Arabic and Jewish influence,

it attained its greatest prosperity under the fostering care of

Frederick II. The writers principally relied on by its professors were

Hippocrates and Galen, whose works had been preserved from barbarian

destruction or oblivion by the Saracens of Egypt and Spain. But while

these venerable authorities were always quoted with reverence, no

obstinate adherence to tradition, no devotion to errors consecrated

by the usages of centuries, characterized the College of Salerno. Its

spirit was eminently progressive, inquisitive, liberal. The monk,

the rabbi, the imam, the atheist, were numbered among its teachers,

and each maintained a position among his fellows in a direct ratio

to his intellectual attainments. This anomalous condition, the more

conspicuous in an era of general ignorance, and flourishing under the

very shadow of the Papacy, itself inimical to all pursuits which tended

to mental progress and interference with its spiritual emoluments,

rendered the existence of such an institution all the more remarkable.

To its researches are to be attributed many maxims, theories, and

methods of practice still recognized as correct by modern physicians.

Its investigations were thoroughly philosophical and based largely

upon experiment. Information was communicated by lectures; anatomical

demonstrations, as in modern times, were considered among the most

useful and valuable means of instruction. Mediæval prejudice still

opposed the mutilation of the human form, which, with the sectarian

prohibition of ceremonial uncleanness, had long before been overcome

by the Moorish surgeons of Cordova; and, in the Salernitan clinic,

anatomists were forced to be apparently content with the dissection

of hogs and monkeys. In secret, however, human bodies were not

infrequently delivered to the scalpel, and the offices of many internal

organs were observed and determined by the aid of vivisection,--a

practice indispensable to a proper understanding of surgery, yet

reprobated, even in our age of scientific inquiry, by a class of noisy,

but well-meaning, fanatics. The unsatisfactory memorials of the School

of Salerno which have descended to us--some of doubtful authenticity,

others of unknown derivation--nevertheless disclose the extraordinary

discoveries its professors had made in anatomy; among them those of

the functions of the chyle ducts, of the lymphatic system, of the

capillaries, which then received their name; of the different coats

and humors of the eye; of the phenomena of digestion, together with

detailed descriptions of the office of the ovaries and their tubes,

which anticipated the researches of Falloppio by more than four

hundred years. Specialists then, as now, devoted their talents to the

improvement and perfection of certain branches of medical science.

There were many celebrated oculists and lithotomists, and practitioners

who were highly successful in the treatment of hernia, of mechanical

injuries of every kind, and of the diseases of women. The rules of

hygiene, the properties of the various substances of the Materia

Medica, the principles of pathology and therapeutics, as laid down by

the faculty of Salerno, have been transmitted to us in a lengthy and

curious poem entitled, “Flos Medicinæ Scholæ Salerni,” popularly known

as Regimen Sanitatis.

This extraordinary production, none of which is probably later than

the twelfth century, and whose origin is unknown, has been ascribed

by Sprengel to Isaac ben Solomon, a famous Jewish practitioner of

Cordova, who died in 950. Careful examination, however, discloses the

fact that it is not the work of a single hand, but a compilation of

various medical precepts and opinions belonging to different epochs.

In its prologue, the pre-eminent value of temperance in all things is

diligently inculcated:

“Si vis incolumem, si vis te vivere sanum:

Curas linque graves, irasci crede profanum.

Parce mero, cœnato parum; non sit tibi vanum

Surgere post epulas; somnum fuge meridianum.

Si tibi deficiant Medici, medici tibi fiant

Hæc tria; mens læta, requies, moderata diæta.”

It also contains hints on diagnosis and prognosis; information

indicating no small degree of anatomical and physiological knowledge;

formulas for antidotes of poisons; advice for the care of the body

during every month in the year; and astrological indications of the

favorable or malign influence of the signs of the zodiac and the stars.

From the following couplet, designating the Seven Ages of Man,

“Infans, inde puer, adolescens, juvenis, vir,

Dicitur inde senex, postea decrepitus,”

seems to have been derived the inspiration of the familiar lines of

Shakspeare.

The vitiated taste of an age not yet fully acquainted with the

properties of correct literary composition caused the incorporation of

verses into many of its most serious and dignified productions. These

didactic poems seem singularly out of place in a medical treatise, and

especially so where, as is usually the case, the poetry is, in both

matter and harmony of numbers, below mediocrity.

Apothecaries and chemists, of whom a competent knowledge of drugs was

required, were subject to the corps of physicians who were forbidden

to join in their enterprises or share their profits; they were sworn

to obey the Code; the number of pharmacies was limited; and they

were liable to the visitation of imperial inspectors responsible

for the purity of their merchandise and the observance of the law.

The precautions required in the sale of poisons; the directions for

compounding electuaries and syrups; the most approved methods for

the preparation of the love-potions believed to be so efficacious by

mediæval credulity; the fabrication of charms for the prevention of

disease, are all set forth in the Salernitan Code with minute and

tedious exactness.

In the city were many hospitals, the oldest of which was established in

the ninth century, and was contemporaneous with similar institutions

founded by the Ommeyade dynasty of Cordova. Some of them were richly

endowed, others were entirely supported by charitable donations.

The strict requirements of medical police were recognized in the

isolation of patients suffering from contagious diseases. A systematic

distinction was observed in the purposes of these beneficent

foundations; they were of various classes and devoted to the care of

the poor and the homeless, to the protection of invalid females of rank

and fortune, to the support of foundlings; and the most intelligent

treatment of every malady was gratuitously afforded. The members of

monastic orders, for the most part, had charge of the hospitals, and

acted in the capacity of nurses and attendants.

The regulations of Frederick, who united the various schools of Salerno

into one vast institution of medical learning, exacted the possession

of the highest abilities, dexterity, and experience by the expectant

practitioner. A preparatory course of three years in the general

branches of literature and philosophy was required of him. Five years

at least were to be devoted to study in the colleges, and one year was

then to be passed under the eye of an experienced physician before

the aspirant for professional distinction was pronounced competent to

prescribe for the suffering.

The remarkable attainments and skill of Roger of Parma, the great

surgeon, who was famous for the treatment of wounds and fractures

and the extirpation of tumors and polypi; of Maurus, Gaulterius, and

Matthew Silvaticus, who published treatises on phlebotomy, general

practice, and the Materia Medica; of Garipontus, an expert in

operations for calculus and other diseases of the pelvic organs; of

Giovanni da Procida, the accomplished court physician of Frederick

II., all graduates of the School of Salerno, are conspicuous in the

annals of mediæval surgery and medicine. Then first appeared the

patronymic of Farragut--afterwards destined to such renown in the naval

history of the New World--borne by a Jew of Messina, who was educated

at Salerno and Montpellier, and whose translation of the “Continent”

of Rhazes, made in the latter part of the thirteenth century, was

dedicated to Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX., King of France.

Students of both sexes were permitted to enjoy the rare advantages

afforded by the School of Salerno; no prejudice hampered the

acquisition by woman of medical knowledge, in whose application her

natural acuteness and sympathy rendered her remarkably proficient

and successful. Many female physicians rose to great eminence in the

different departments of their profession as lecturers, chemists,

operators: among them the names of Rebecca, who wrote on fevers and

the embryo; Abella, on generation and prenatal life; Trotula, on

the Materia Medica, hernia, and obstetrics; Mercuriade, on general

surgery; and Costanza Colenda, whose scientific accomplishments, as

well as her beauty, made her famous in Europe, have descended to our

time. A college of midwifery existed at Salerno, whose graduates

were subjected to examinations fully as strict as those required of

candidates for medical honors, and who, sworn to fidelity, enjoyed

a lucrative practice in the opulent families of Naples and Messina.

Although a lofty sense of professional etiquette distinguished the

faculty of Salerno, imperial supervision, which, under Frederick, found

nothing too minute for its attention, carefully protected the public

from extortion. Fees were fixed by law; their amounts were regulated by

circumstances. Even the ordinary number of visits required in a given

time was defined; and attendance was accorded without charge to the

poor. In our age, so prolific of professional incompetence, the exalted

rank and profound attainments of the graduates of the Salernitan school

may well excite astonishment; amidst the darkness of mediæval ignorance

it was the educational and literary phenomenon of Europe.

A generous patron of every art and occupation which could embellish

his domains, benefit his subjects, or enrich his treasury, the Emperor

gave also much attention to great public works,--the fortification of

cities, the improvement of harbors, the construction of highways. His

palaces disclosed a marked partiality for Moorish customs and Moorish

architecture. Some of these beautiful edifices had come down from the

Saracen domination, but many were constructed after the plans of the

royal architect, who personally superintended their erection. They were

finished with costly marbles and adorned with bas-reliefs, statues, and

paintings. The eagles of Germany were sculptured over their portals.

Outworks of vast extent defended their approaches. In all were courts

and gardens odorous with the blossoms of jasmine and orange and

surrounded by secluded apartments destined for the occupants of the

imperial seraglio. Attached to some of these delightful retreats were

extensive menageries, aviaries, and miniature lakes filled with gold

and silver fish. There was no appliance of Oriental luxury, no means

which could contribute to the gratification of the senses, that was not

to be found in the Sicilian palaces of Frederick II. In the foundation

of new cities, extensive districts were depopulated to provide them

with inhabitants. This arbitrary proceeding was often a measure of

profound policy, which insured the good behavior of a turbulent

population that, removed from the influence of former associations,

transplanted among strangers, and regarded by their new neighbors with

suspicion and hostility, were rendered incapable of serious mischief.

In this manner was established the Saracen colony of Lucera, whose

members, composed of rebellious Mussulmans of Sicily, became, soon

after their settlement, the most faithful subjects of Frederick and the

chief support of the imperial throne.

That city was built on the slope of the Apennines, in a location

most advantageous for both the purposes of commerce and defence.

Its citadel was a mile in circuit and protected by fortifications

of enormous strength. In the centre stood a lofty tower, at once

the palace and the treasury of the Emperor. Frederick neglected no

opportunity of gratifying the pride and confirming the attachment of

his Saracen subjects. The spoils of the Papal states were lavished

upon them. The trade of the colony was encouraged by every available

means. Armorers and workers in the precious metals were imported from

Syria. From Egypt came laborers highly skilled in horticulture. Great

orchards were planted in the environs. The soldiers of the imperial

body-guard were Moslems of Lucera. Splendidly uniformed and mounted,

they were constantly on duty at the palace, on the march, in the camp.

Conspicuous in the funeral escort of the deceased monarch, their duties

were only relinquished at the grave.

The maintenance of this infidel stronghold in the heart of Christian

Europe was a standing reproach to the Papacy; and the horror of

the clergy was aggravated by the knowledge that churches had been

demolished to supply it with building materials; that the revenues

of rich and populous districts were diverted through its agency from

the coffers of the cathedral and the monastery; that it enjoyed

exclusive and valuable commercial privileges; and that, worst of all,

it was able at a moment’s notice to furnish more than twenty thousand

well-equipped, valiant, and incorruptible soldiers to the armies of

the Emperor.