dissertations appended to the "Lives of the Saints," will show how very
varied and how very valuable were the purely historical labours of the
Bollandists. Thus opening the first volume of the "Thesaurus
Antiquitatis," a collection of the critical treatises scattered through
the volumes published prior to 1750, the following titles strike the
eye:--"Dissertations on the Byzantine historian Theophanes," on the
"Ancient Catalogues of the Roman Pontiffs," on the "Diplomatic Art"--a
discussion which elicited the famous treatise of Mabillon, "De Re
Diplomatica," laying down the true principles for distinguishing false
documents from true--on certain mediæval "Itineraries in Palestine," on
the "Patriarchates of Alexandria and Jerusalem," on the "Bishops of
Milan to the year 1261," on the "Mediæval Kings of Majorca" and no less
than three treatises on the "Chronology of the early Merovingian and
other French Kings." Let us take for instance these last mentioned
essays on the early French kings. In them we find the Bollandists
discovering a king of France, Dagobert II., whose romantic history,
banishment to Ireland, restoration to his kingdom by the instrumentality
of Archbishop Wilfrid, of York, and tragic death, had till their
investigations lain hidden from every historian. As soon, indeed, as
they had brought this obscure episode to light, and had elaborately
traced the genealogy of the Merovingians, their claim to the discovery
was disputed by Hadr. Valesius, the historiographer to the French Court,
who was of course jealous that any one else should know more about the
origins of the French monarchy than he did. His pretension, however, was
easily refuted by Henschenius, who showed that he had himself discovered
this derelict king twelve years before Valesius turned his thoughts to
the subject, having published in 1654 a dissertation upon him distinct
from those embodied in the "Acta Sanctorum." Hallam, in his "History of
the Middle Ages," introduces this king, and notices that his history had
escaped all historians till discovered by some learned men in the
seventeenth century, for it is in this vague way he alludes to the
Bollandists--and then refers for his authority to Sismondi, who in turn
knows nothing of the Bollandists' share in the discovery, but attributes
it to Mabillon when treating of the "Acts of the Benedictine Saints."
Let us again take up Hallam, and we shall in vain search for notices of
the kings of Majorca, a branch of the Royal family of Arragon, who
reigned over the Balearic Islands in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. Let any one, however, desirous of a picture of the domestic
life of sovereigns during the Middle Ages, take up Papebrock's treatise
on the "Palatine Laws" of James II., King of Majorca, A.D. 1324, where
he will see depicted--all the more minutely because from the size of his
principality the king had no other outlet for his energy--the ritual of
a mediæval Court, illustrated, too, with pictures drawn from the
original manuscript. In this document are laid down with painful
minuteness, the duties of every official from the chancellor and the
major-domo to the lowest scullions and grooms, including butlers, cooks,
blacksmiths, musicians, scribes, physicians, surgeons, chaplains,
choir-men, and chamberlains. Remote, too, as these kings of Majorca and
their elaborate ceremonial may seem to be from the England of to-day, a
careful study of these "Palace Laws" would seem to indicate either that
our own Court Ritual was derived from it, or else that both are deduced
from one common stock. The point of contact, however, between our own
Court etiquette and that of Majorca is not so very hard to find. The
kings of Arragon, acting on the usual principle, might is right,
devoured the inheritance of their kinsmen, which lay so tantalizingly
close to their own shores, during the lifetime of the worthy legislator,
James II. But as Greece led captive her conqueror, Rome, so too Arragon,
though superior in brute force, bowed to the genius of Majorca, at least
on points of courtly details, and adopted _en bloc_ the laws of James
II., which were published as his own by Peter IV., King of Arragon, A.D.
1344. Thence they passed over to the United Kingdom of Castile and
Arragon, and so may have easily found their way to England; for surely,
if a naturally ceremonious people like the Spaniards needed instruction
on such matters from the Majorcans, how much more must colder northerns
like ourselves. This incident illustrates the special opportunities
possessed by the Bollandists for consulting ancient documents, which
otherwise would most probably have been lost for ever. Their manuscript
of those Majorcan laws seems to have been originally the property of the
legislator himself. When King James was dispossessed of his kingdom, he
fled to Philip VI. of France, seeking redress, and bearing with him a
splendid copy of his laws as a present, which his son and successor John
in turn presented to Philip, Duke of Burgundy. After lying there a
century it found its way to Flanders, in the train of a Duchess of
Burgundy, and thus finally came into the possession of the Antwerp
Jesuits.
Again, the study of the Bollandists throws light upon the past history
and present state of Palestine. Thus the indefatigable Papebrock,
equally at home in the most various kinds of learning, discusses the
history of the Bishops and Patriarchs of Jerusalem, in a tract
preliminary to the third volume for May. But, not content with a subject
so wide, he branches off to treat of divers other questions relating to
Oriental history, such as the Essenes and the origin of Monasticism, the
Saracenic persecution of the Eastern Christians, and the introduction of
the Arabic notation into Europe. On this last head the Bollandists
anticipate some modern speculations.[10] He maintains, on the authority
of a Greek manuscript in the Vatican, written by an Eastern monk,
Maximus Planudes, about 1270, that, while the Arabs derived their
notation from the Brahmins of India, about A.D. 200, they only
introduced it into Eastern Europe so late as the thirteenth century.
Upon the geography of Palestine again they give us information. All
modern works of travel or survey dealing with the Holy Land, make
frequent reference to the records left us by men like Eusebius and
Jerome, and the itineraries of the "Bordeaux Pilgrim," of Bishop
Arculf, A.D., 700, Benjamin of Tudela, A.D. 1163, and others. In the
second volume for May, we have presented to us two itineraries, one of
which seems to have escaped general notice. One is the record of
Antoninus Martyr, a traveller in the seventh century. This is well known
and often quoted. The other is the diary of a Greek priest, Joannes
Phocas, describing "the castles and cities from Antioch to Jerusalem,
together with the holy places of Syria, Ph[oe]nicia, and Palestine," as
they were seen by him in the year 1185. This manuscript, first published
in the "Acta Sanctorum," was discovered in the island of Chios, by Leo
Allatius, afterwards librarian of the Vatican. It is very rich in
interesting details concerning the state of Palestine and Christian
tradition in the twelfth century. The Bollandists again were the first
to bring prominently forward in the last volume of June the "Ancient
Roman Calendar of Polemeus Silvius." This seems to have been a combined
calendar and diary, kept by some citizen of Rome in the middle of the
fifth century. It records from day to day the state of the weather, the
direction of the wind, the birthdays of eminent characters in history,
poets like Virgil, orators like Cicero, emperors like Vespasian and
Julian; and is at the same time most important as showing the large
intermixture of heathen ideas and fashions which still continued
paramount in Rome a century and a half after the triumph of
Christianity.
The new Bollandists, indeed, do not produce such exhaustive monographs
as their predecessors did; but we cannot join in the verdict of the
writer in the new issue of the "Encyclopædia Britannica," who tells us
that the continuation is much inferior to the original work. Some of
their articles manifest a critical acquaintance with the latest modern
research, as, for instance, their dissertation on the Homerite Martyrs
and the Jewish Homerite kingdom of Southern Arabia, wherein they display
their knowledge of the work done by the great Orientalists of England
and Germany, while in their history of St. Rose, of Lima, A.D. 1617,
they celebrate the only American who was ever canonized by the Roman
Catholic Church, and, at the same time, give us a fearful picture of the
austerities to which fanaticism can lead its victims. Perhaps to some
readers one of the most interesting points about this great work, when
viewed in the light of modern history, will be the complete change of
front which it exhibits on one of the test questions about Papal
Infallibility. One of the great difficulties in the path of this
doctrine is the case of Liberius, Pope in the middle of the fourth
century. He is accused--and to ordinary minds the accusation seems
just--of having signed an Arian formula, of having communicated with the
Arians, and of having anathematized St. Athanasius. He stood firm for a
while, but was exiled by the Emperor. During his absence Felix II. was
chosen Pope. Liberius, after a time was permitted to return; whereupon
the spectacle, so often afterwards repeated, was witnessed of two Popes
competing for the Papal throne. Felix, however he may have fared in
life, has fairly surpassed his opponent in death, since Felix appears in
the Roman Martyrology as a Saint and a Martyr under the date of July
29; while Liberius is not admitted therein even as a Confessor. This
would surely seem to give us every guarantee for the sanctity of Felix,
and the fallibility of Liberius, as the Roman Martyrology of to-day is
guaranteed by a decree of Pope Gregory XIII., issued "under the ring of
the Fisherman." In this decree "all patriarchs, archbishops, bishops,
abbots, and religious orders," are bidden to use this Martyrology
without addition, change, or subtraction; while any one so altering it
is warned that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the
Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. The earlier Bollandists, with this
awful anathema hanging over them, most loyally accepted the Roman
Martyrology, and therefore most vigorously maintained, in the seventh
volume for July, the heresy of Liberius, as well as the orthodoxy and
saintship of Felix. But, as years rolled on, this admission was seen to
be of most dangerous consequence; and so we find, in the sixth volume,
for September, that Felix has become, as he still remains in current
Roman historians, like Alzog, a heretic, a schismatic, and an anti-Pope,
while Liberius is restored to his position as the only valid and
orthodox Bishop of Rome. But then the disagreeable question arises, if
this be so, what becomes of the Papal decree of Gregory XIII. issued
_sub annulo piscatoris_, and the anathemas appended thereto? With the
merits of this controversy, however, we are, as historical students, in
a very slight degree concerned; and we simply produce these facts as
specimens of the riches contained in the externally unattractive volumes
of the "Acta Sanctorum." Space would fail us, did we attempt to set
forth at any length the contents of these volumes. Suffice it to say
that even upon our English annals, which have been so thoroughly
explored of late years, the records of the Bollandists would probably
throw some light, discussing as they do, at great length, the lives of
such English Saints as Edward the Confessor and Wilfrid of York; and yet
they are not too favourably disposed towards our insular Saints, since
they plainly express their opinion that our pious simplicity has filled
their Acts with incredible legends and miracles, more suited to excite
laughter than to promote edification.
But, doubtless, our reader is weary of our hagiographers. We must,
therefore, notice briefly the controversies in which their labours
involved them. Bollandus, when he died, departed amid universal regret:
Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, all joined with Jesuits in regret
for his death, and in prayers for his eternal peace. A few years
afterwards the Society experienced the very fleeting character of such
universal popularity. During the issue of the first twelve volumes, they
had steered clear of all dangerous controversies by a rigid observance
of the precepts laid down by Bollandus. In discussing, however, the life
of Albert, at first Bishop of Vercelli, and afterwards Papal Legate and
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the beginning of the thirteenth
century, Papebrock challenged the alleged antiquity of the Carmelite
Order, which affected to trace itself back to Elijah the Tishbite. This
piece of scepticism, brought down a storm upon his devoted head, which
raged for years and involved Popes, yea even Princes and Courts, in the
quarrel. Du Cange threw the shield of his vast learning over the honest
criticism of the Jesuits. The Spanish Inquisition stepped forward in
defence of the Carmelites; and toward the end of the seventeenth century
condemned the first fourteen volumes of the "Acta Sanctorum" as
dangerous to the faith. The Carmelites were very active in writing
pamphlets in their own defence, wherein after the manner of the time
they deal more in hard words and bad names than in sound argument. Thus
the title of one of their pamphlets describes Papebrock as "the new
Ishmael whose hand is against every man and every man's hand is against
him." It is evident, however, that they felt the literary battle going
against them, inasmuch as in 1696 they petitioned the King of Spain to
impose perpetual silence upon their adversaries. As his most Catholic
Majesty did not see fit to interfere, they presented a similar memorial
to Pope Innocent XIII., who in 1699 imposed the _clôture_ upon all
parties, and thus effectually terminated a battle which had raged for
twenty years. Papebrock again involved himself at a later period in a
controversy touching a very tender and very important point in the Roman
system. In discussing the lives of some Chinese martyrs, he advocated
the translation of the Liturgy into the vulgar tongue of the converts;
which elicited a reply from Gueranger in his "Institutions
Théologiques;" while again between the years 1729 and 1736 a pitched
battle took place between the Bollandists and the Dominicans touching
the genealogy of their founder, St. Dominic. All these controversies,
with many other minor ones in which they were engaged, will be found
summed up in an apologetic folio which the Bollandists published. In
looking through it the reader will specially be struck by this
instructive fact, that the bitterness and violence of the controversy
were always in the inverse ratio of the importance of the points at
issue. This much also must any fair mind allow: the Society of Jesus,
since the days of Pascal and the "Provincial Letters," has been regarded
as a synonym for dishonesty and fraud. From any such charge the student
of the "Acta Sanctorum" must regard the Bollandists as free. In them we
behold oftentimes a credulity which would not have found place among men
who knew by experience more of the world of life and action, but, on
the other hand, we find in them thorough loyalty to historical truth.
They deal in no suppression of evidence; they give every side of the
question. They write like men who feel, as Bollandus their founder did,
that under no circumstances is it right to tell a lie. They never
hesitate to avow their own convictions and predilections. They draw
their own conclusions, and put their own gloss upon facts and documents;
but yet they give the documents as they found them, and they enable the
impartial student--working not in trammels as they did--to make a
sounder and truer use of them. They display not the spirit of the mere
confessor whose tone has been lowered by the stifling atmosphere of the
casuistry with which he has been perpetually dealing; but, the braced
soul, the hardy courage of the historical critic, who having climbed the
lofty peaks of bygone centuries, has watched and noted the inevitable
discovery and defeat of lies, the grandeur and beauty of truth. They
were Jesuits indeed, and, like all the members of that Society, were
bound, so far as possible, to sink all human affections and consecrate
every thought to the work of their order. If such a sacrifice be lawful
for any man, if it be permitted any thus to suppress the deepest and
holiest affections which God has created, surely such a sacrifice could
not have been made in the pursuance of a worthier or nobler object than
the rescue from destruction, and the preservation to all ages, of the
facts and documents contained in the "Acta Sanctorum."
GEORGE T. STOKES.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Henschenius was a man of great physical powers. He always delighted
in walking exercise, and executed many of his literary journeys in Italy
on foot, even amid the summer heats. Ten years later, when close on
seventy, he walked on an emergency ten leagues in one day through the
mountains and forests of the Ardennes district, and was quite fresh next
day for another journey. He was a man of very full complexion. According
to the medical system of the time, he indulged in blood-letting once or
twice a year.
[9] Since this paper was written the Bollandists have issued a
prospectus of an annual publication called "Analecta Bollandiana." From
this document we learn that disease and death have now reduced the
company very low. De Smedt has had to retire almost as soon as elected.
[10] Cf., for instance, Colebrooke's "Life and Essays," i. 309. iii.
360, 399, 474; W[oe]pké, "Memoir on the Propagation of Indian Cyphers in
Jour. Asiatique," 1863.
ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND MADAGASCAR.
The present difficulties between France and Madagascar, and the recent
arrival of a Malagasy Embassy in this country, have made the name of the
great African island a familiar one to all readers of our daily journals
during the last few weeks. For some time past we have heard much of
certain "French claims" upon Madagascar, and alleged "French rights"
there; and since the envoys of the Malagasy sovereign are now in England
seeking the friendly offices of our Government on behalf of their
country, it will be well for Englishmen to endeavour to understand the
merits of the dispute, and to know why they are called to take part in
the controversy.
Except to a section of the English public which has for many years taken
a deep interest in the religious history of the island and given
liberally both men and money to enlighten it, and to a few others who
are concerned in its growing trade, Madagascar is still very vaguely
known to the majority of English people; and, as was lately remarked by
a daily journal, its name has until recently been almost as much a mere
geographical expression as that of Mesopotamia. The island has, however,
certain very interesting features in its scientific aspects, and
especially in some religious and social problems which have been worked
out by its people during the past fifty years; and these may be briefly
described before proceeding to discuss the principal subject of this
article.
Looking sideways at a map of the Southern Indian Ocean, Madagascar
appears to rise like a huge sea monster out of the waters. The island
has a remarkably compact and regular outline; for many hundred miles its
eastern shore is almost a straight line, but on its north-western side
it is indented by a number of deep land-locked gulfs, which include some
of the finest harbours in the world. About a third of its interior to
the north and east is occupied by an elevated mountainous region, raised
from 3,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea, and consisting of Primary
rocks--granite, gneiss, and basalt--probably very ancient land, and
forming during the Secondary geological epoch an island much smaller
than the Madagascar of to-day. While our Oolitic and Chalk rocks were
being slowly laid down under northern seas, the extensive coast plains
of the island, especially on its western and southern sides, were again
and again under water, and are still raised but a few hundred feet above
the sea-level. From south-east to north and north-west there extends a
band of extinct volcanoes, connected probably with the old craters of
the Comoro Group, where, in Great Comoro, the subterranean forces are
still active. All round the island runs a girdle of dense forest,
varying from ten to forty miles in width, and containing fine timber and
valuable gums and other vegetable wealth--a paradise for botanists,
where rare orchids, the graceful traveller's-tree, the delicate
lattice-leaf plant, the gorgeous flamboyant, and many other elsewhere
unknown forms of life abound, and where doubtless much still awaits
fuller research.
While the flora of Madagascar is remarkably abundant, its fauna is
strangely limited, and contains none of the various and plentiful forms
of mammalian life which make Southern and Central Africa the paradise of
sportsmen. The ancient land of the island has preserved antique forms of
life: many species of lemur make the forest resound with their cries;
and these, with the curious and highly-specialized Aye-aye, and peculiar
species of Viverridæ and Insectivora, are probably "survivals", of an
old-world existence, when Madagascar was one of an archipelago of large
islands, whose remains are only small islands like the Seychelles and
Mascarene Groups, or coral banks and atolls like the Chagos, Amirante,
and others, which are slowly disappearing beneath the ocean. Until two
or three hundred years ago, the coast-plains of Madagascar were trodden
by the great struthious bird, the Æpyornis, apparently the most gigantic
member of the avi-fauna of the world, and whose enormous eggs probably
gave rise to the stories of the Rukh of the "Arabian Nights." It will be
evident, therefore, that Madagascar is full of interest as regards its
scientific aspects.
When we look at the human inhabitants of the island there is also a
considerable field for research, and some puzzling problems are
presented. While Madagascar may be correctly termed "the great _African_
island" as regards its geographical position, considered ethnologically,
it is rather a Malayo-Polynesian island. Though so near Africa, it has
but slight connection with the continent; the customs, traditions,
language, and mental and physical characteristics of its people all tend
to show that their ancestors came across the Indian Ocean from the
south-east of Asia. There are traces of some aboriginal peoples in
parts of the interior, but the dark and the brown Polynesians are
probably both represented in the different Malagasy tribes; and although
scattered somewhat thinly over an island a thousand miles long and four
times as large as England and Wales, there is substantially but one
language spoken throughout the whole of Madagascar. Of these people, the
Hova, who occupy the central portion of the interior high-land, are the
lightest in colour and the most civilized, and are probably the latest
and purest Malay immigrants. Along the western coast are a number of
tribes commonly grouped under the term Sàkalàva, but each having its own
dialect, chief, and customs. They are nomadic in habits, keeping large
herds of cattle, and are less given to agriculture than the central and
eastern peoples. In the interior are found, besides the Hova, the
Sihànaka, the Bétsiléo, and the Bàra; in the eastern forests are the
Tanàla, and on the eastern coast are the Bétsimisàraka, Tamòro, Taisàka,
and other allied peoples.
From a remote period the various Malagasy tribes seem to have retained
their own independence of each other, no one tribe having any great
superiority; but about two hundred years ago a warlike south-western
tribe called Sàkalàva conquered all the others on the west coast, and
formed two powerful kingdoms, which exacted tribute also from some of
the interior peoples. Towards the commencement of the present century,
however, the Hova became predominant; having conquered the interior and
eastern tribes, they were also enabled by friendship with England to
subdue the Sàkalàva, and by the year 1824 King Radàma I. had established
his authority over the whole of Madagascar except a portion of the
south-west coast.
A little earlier than the date last named--viz., in 1820--a Protestant
mission was commenced in the interior of the island at the capital city,
Antanànarivo. This was with the full approval of the king, who was a
kind of Malagasy Peter the Great, and ardently desired that his people
should be enlightened. A small body of earnest men sent out by the
London Missionary Society did a great work during the fifteen years they
were allowed to labour in the central provinces. They reduced the
beautiful and musical Malagasy language to a written form; they gave the
people the beginnings of a native literature, and a complete version of
the Holy Scriptures, and founded several Christian churches. Many of the
useful arts were also taught by the missionary artisans; and to all
appearance Christianity and civilization seemed likely soon to prevail
throughout the country.