History of Civilization in England, Vol. 2 of 3

263

‘L'esprit religieux ne s'était mêlé en aucune manière aux querelles de la Fronde.’ Capefigue, vol. ii. p. 434. Lenet, who had great influence with what was called the party of the princes, says that he always avoided any attempt ‘à faire aboutir notre parti à une guerre de religion.’ Mém. de Lenet, vol. i. p. 619. Even the people said that it was unimportant whether or not a man died a Protestant; but that if he were a partizan of Mazarin he was sure to be damned: ‘Ils disoient qu'étant mazarin, il falloit qu'il fût damné.’ Lenet, vol. i. p. 434.

264

Indeed he does not conceal this even in his memoirs. He says (Mém. vol. i. p. 3), he had ‘l'âme peut-être la moins ecclésiastique qui fût dans l'univers.’ At p. 13, ‘le chagrin que ma profession ne laissoit pas de nourrir toujours dans le fonds de mon âme.’ At p. 21, ‘je haïssois ma profession plus que jamais.’ At p. 48, ‘le clergé, qui donne toujours l'exemple de la servitude, la prêchoit aux autres sous le titre d'obéissance.’ See also the remark of his great friend Joly (Mém. de Joly, p. 209, edit. Petitot, 1825); and the account given by Tallemant des Réaux, who knew De Retz well, and had travelled with him, Historiettes, vol. vii. pp. 18-30. The same tendency is illustrated, though in a much smaller degree, by a conversation which Charles II., when in exile, held with De Retz, and which is preserved in Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, p. 806, and is worth consulting merely as an instance of the purely secular view that De Retz always took of political affairs.

265

‘Cet homme singulier est le premier évêque en France qui ait fait une guerre civile sans avoir la religion pour prétexte.’ Siècle de Louis XIV, in Œuvres de Voltaire, vol. xix. p. 261.

266

Hooker and Pascal may properly be classed together, as the two most sublime theological writers either country has produced; for Bossuet is as inferior to Pascal as Jeremy Taylor is inferior to Hooker.

267

One of the most remarkable men they have ever possessed notices this connexion, which he expresses conversely, but with equal truth: ‘moins on sait, moins on doute; moins on a découvert, moins on voit ce qui reste à découvrir… Quand les hommes sont ignorans, il est aisé de tout savoir.’ Discours en Sorbonne, in Œuvres de Turgot, vol. ii. pp. 65, 70.

268

Mazarin, until his death in 1661, exercised complete authority over Louis. See Siècle de Louis XIV, in Œuvres de Voltaire, vol. xix. pp. 318, 319; and Lavallée, Hist. des Français, vol. iii. p. 195; so that, as Montglat says (Mém. vol. iii. p. 111), ‘On doit appeler ce temps-là le commencement du règne de Louis XIV.’ The pompous manner in which, directly after the death of Mazarin, the king assumed the government, is related by Brienne, who was present. Mém. de Brienne, vol. ii. pp. 154–158.

269

By this I mean, that the divergence now first became clear to every observer; but the origin of the divergence dates from a much earlier period, as we shall see in the next chapter.

270

That is to say, their practical recognition; theoretically, they are still denied by innumerable politicians, who, nevertheless, assist in carrying them into effect, fondly hoping that each innovation will be the last, and enticing men into reform under the pretext that by each change they are returning to the spirit of the ancient British constitution.

271

‘Toute influence qu'on accordait à la science ne pouvait, dans les premiers temps, qu'être favorable au clergé.’ Meyer, Institut. Judic. vol. i. p. 498.

272

Early in the eleventh century the clergy first began systematically to repress independent inquiries by punishing men who attempted to think for themselves. Compare Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. iv. pp. 145, 146; Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. vi. pp. 365, 366; Prescott's Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. p. 261 note. Before this, such a policy, as Sismondi justly observes, was not required: ‘Pendant plusieurs siècles, l'église n'avoit été troublée par aucune hérésie; l'ignorance étoit trop complète la soumission trop servile, la foi trop aveugle, pour que les questions qui avoient si long-temps exercé la subtilité des Grecs fussent seulement comprises par les Latins.’ As knowledge advanced, the opposition between inquiry and belief became more marked: the church redoubled her efforts, and at the end of the twelfth century the popes first formally called on the secular power to punish heretics; and the earliest constitution addressed ‘inquisitoribus hæreticæ pravitatis’ is one by Alexander IV. Meyer, Inst. Jud. vol. ii. pp. 554, 556. See also on this movement, Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, vol. i. p. 125, vol. iv. p. 284. In 1222 a synod assembled at Oxford caused an apostate to be burned; and this, says Lingard (Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 148), ‘is, I believe, the first instance of capital punishment in England on the ground of religion.’ Compare Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. ii. p. 444.

273

Sir F. Palgrave (English Commonwealth, vol. ii. p. ccvi.) says, ‘it is generally admitted, by the best authorities, that from about the eleventh century benefices acquired the name of fiefs or feuds;’ and Robertson (State of Europe, note viii. in Works, p. 393) supposes that the word feudum does not occur before 1008. But according to M. Guizot (Civilisation en France, vol. iii. p. 238), ‘il apparaît, pour la première fois, dans une charte de Charles le Gros en 884.’ This is a question more curious than important; since whatever the origin of the word may be, it is certain that the thing did not, and could not, exist before the tenth century at the earliest: inasmuch as the extreme disorganisation of society rendered so coercive an institution impossible. M. Guizot, in another work (Essais sur l'Hist. de France, p. 239), rightly says, ‘Au Xe siècle seulement, les rapports et les pouvoirs sociaux acquirent quelque fixité.’ See also his Civilisation en Europe, p. 90.

274

‘La terre est tout dans ce système… Le système féodal est comme une religion de la terre.’ Origines du Droit, in Œuvres de Michelet, vol. ii. p. 302. ‘Le caractère de la féodalité, c'était la prédominance de la réalité sur la personnalité, de la terre sur l'homme.’ Eschbach, Etude du Droit, p. 256.

275

According to the social and political arrangements from the fourth to the tenth century, the clergy were so eminently a class apart, that they were freed from ‘burdens of the state,’ and were not obliged to engage in military services unless they thought proper to do so. See Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. iii. p. 195, vol. v. pp. 133, 140; and Petrie's Ecclesiast. Archit. p. 382. But under the feudal system this immunity was lost; and in regard to performing services no separation of classes was admitted. ‘After the feudal polity became established, we do not find that there was any dispensation for ecclesiastical fiefs.’ Hallam's Supplemental Notes, p. 120; and for further proof of the loss of the old privileges, compare Grose's Military Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 5, 64; Meyer, Instit. Judic. vol. i. p. 257; Turner's Hist. of England, vol. iv. p. 462; and Mably's Observations, vol. i. pp. 434, 435: so that, as this writer says, p. 215, ‘Chaque seigneur laïc avait gagné personnellement à la révolution qui forma le gouvernement féodal; mais les évêques et les abbés, en devenant souverains dans leurs terres, perdirent au contraire beaucoup de leur pouvoir et de leur dignité.’

276

The great change of turning life-possessions of land into hereditary possessions, began late in the ninth century, being initiated in France by a capitulary of Charles the Bald, in 877. See Allen on the Prerogative, p. 210; Spence's Origin of the Laws of Europe, pp. 282, 301; Meyer, Instit. Judiciaires, vol. i. p. 206.

277

That surnames first arose in the tenth century is stated by the most competent authorities. See Sismondi, Hist. de Français, vol. iii. pp. 452-455; Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 138; Monteil, Hist. des divers Etats, vol. iii. p. 268; Petrie's Ecclesiast. Archit. pp. 277, 342. Koch (Tableau des Révolutions, vol. i. p. 138) erroneously says, ‘c'est pareillement aux croisades que l'Europe doit l'usage des surnoms de famille;’ a double mistake, both as to the date and the cause, since the introduction of surnames being part of a large social movement, can under no circumstances be ascribed to a single event.

278

On this process from the end of the ninth to the twelfth century, compare Hallam's Supplemental Notes, pp. 97, 98; Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal Property, p. 21; Klimrath, Hist. du Droit, vol. i. p. 74.

279

As to the origin of armorial bearings, which cannot be traced higher than the twelfth century, see Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. pp. 138, 139; Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland, pp. 231, 232; Origines du Droit, in Œuvres de Michelet, vol. ii. p. 382.

280

For, as Lerminia says (Philos. du Droit, vol. i. p. 17), ‘la loi féodale n'est autre chose que la terre élevée à la souveraineté.’ On the decline of the church in consequence of the increased feudal and secular spirit, see Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. iii. p. 440, vol. iv. p. 88. In our own country, one fact may be mentioned illustrative of the earliest encroachments of laymen: namely, that, before the twelfth century, we find no instance in England of the great seal being entrusted ‘to the keeping of a layman.’ Campbell's Chancellors, vol. i. p. 61.

281

Celibacy, on account of its supposed ascetic tendency, was advocated and in some countries was enforced, at an early period; but the first general and decisive movement in its favour was in the middle of the eleventh century, before which time it was a speculative doctrine, constantly disobeyed. See Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. vi. pp. 52, 61, 62, 72, 93, 94 note, vol. vii. pp. 127–131; Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. pp. 248, 249; Eccleston's English Antiq. p. 95.

282

Where it was particularly flourishing: ‘la féodalité fut organisée en Normandie plus fortement et plus systématiquement que partout ailleurs en France.’ Klimrath, Travaux sur l'Hist. du Droit, vol. i. p. 130. The ‘coutume de Normandie’ was, at a much later period, only to be found in the old ‘grand coutumier.’ Klimrath, vol. ii. p. 160. On the peculiar tenacity with which the Normans clung to it, see Lettres d'Aguesseau, vol. ii. pp. 225, 226: ‘accoutumés à respecter leur coutume comme l'évangile.’

283

Mills' Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. p. 387; Turner's Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 390, vol. iv. p. 76. Mercenary troops were also employed by his immediate successors. Grose's Military Antiq. vol. i. p. 55.

284

On the different meanings attached to the word ‘baron,’ compare Klimrath, Hist. du Droit, vol. ii. p. 40, with Meyer, Instit. Judiciaires, vol. i. p. 105. But M. Guizot says, what seems most likely, ‘il est probable que ce nom fut commun originairement à tous les vassaux immédiats de la couronne, liés au roi per servitium militare, par le service de chevalier.’ Essais, p. 265.

285

Meyer, Instit. Judic. vol. i. p. 242; Turner's Hist. of England, vol. iii. p. 220. The same policy of reducing the nobles was followed up by Henry II., who destroyed the baronial castles. Turner, vol. iv. p. 223. Compare Lingard, vol. i. pp. 315, 371.

286

‘Deinde cœpit homagia hominum totius Angliæ, et juramentum fidelitatis cujuscumque essent feodi vel tenementi.’ Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, vol. ii. p. 9.

287

See some good remarks on this difference between the French and English nobles, in Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. pp. 99, 100. Mably (Observations, vol. i. p. 60) says: ‘en effet, on négligea, sur la fin de la première race, de conserver les titres primordiaux de ses possessions.’ As to the old customary French law of prescription, see Giraud, Précis de l'Ancien Droit, pp. 79, 80.

288

Mably, Observations sur l'Hist. de France, vol. i. pp. 70, 162, 178.

289

On the policy of Philip Augustus in regard to the nobles, see Mably, Observations, vol. i. p. 246; Lerminier, Philos. du Droit, vol. i. p. 265; Boulainvilliers, Hist. de l'Ancien Gouvernement, vol. iii. pp. 147–150; Guizot, Civilisation en France, vol. iv. pp. 134, 135; Courson, Hist. des Peuples Brétons, Paris, 1846, vol. ii. p. 350.

290

‘No subjects ever enjoyed the right of coining silver in England without the royal stamp and superintendence; a remarkable proof of the restraint in which the feudal aristocracy was always held in this country.’ Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 154.

291

Brougham's Polit. Philos. 1849, vol. i. p. 446. In addition to the evidence there given on the right of coinage, see Mably's Observations, vol. i. p. 424, vol. ii. pp. 296, 297; and Turner's Normandy, vol. ii. p. 261.

292

Hallam's Supplemental Notes, pp. 304, 305.

293

‘Saint-Louis consacra le droit de guerre… Philippe le Bel, qui voulut l'abolir, finit par le rétablir.’ Montlosier, Monarchie Française, vol. i. pp. 127, 202: see also pp. 434, 435, and vol. ii. pp. 435, 436. Mably (Observations, vol. ii. p. 338) mentions ‘lettres-patentes de Philippe-de-Valois du 8 février 1330, pour permettre dans le duché d'Aquitaine les guerres privées,’ &c.; and he adds, ‘le 9 avril 1353 le roi Jean renouvelle l'ordonnance de S. Louis, nommée la quarantaine du roi, touchant les guerres privées.’

294

Sir Francis Palgrave (in his Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, vol. i. pp. 51–55) has attempted to estimate the results produced by the Norman Conquest; but he omits to notice this, which was the most important consequence of all.

295

On this political union between Norman barons and Saxon citizens, of which the first clear indication is at the end of the twelfth century, compare Campbell's Chancellors, vol. i. p. 113, with Brougham's Polit. Philos. vol. i. p. 339, vol. iii. p. 222.

In regard to the general question of the amalgamation of races, we have three distinct kinds of evidence:

1st. Towards the end of the twelfth century, a new language began to be formed by blending Norman with Saxon; and English literature, properly so called, dates from the commencement of the thirteenth century. Compare Madden's Preface to Layamon, 1847, vol. i. pp. xx. xxi., with Turner's Hist. of England, vol. viii. pp. 214, 217, 436, 437.

2nd. We have the specific statement of a writer in the reign of Henry II., that ‘sic permixtæ sunt nationes ut vix discerni possit hodie, de liberis loquor, quis Anglicus, quis Normannus sit genere.’ Note in Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 106.

3rd. Before the thirteenth century had passed away, the difference of dress, which in that state of society would survive many other differences, was no longer observed, and the distinctive peculiarities of Norman and Saxon attire had disappeared. See Strutt's View of the Dress and Habits of the People of England, vol. ii. p. 67, edit. Planché, 1842, 4to.

296

‘An equal distribution of civil rights to all classes of freemen forms the peculiar beauty of the charter.’ Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 108. This is very finely noticed in one of Lord Chatham's great speeches. Parl. Hist. vol. xvi. p. 662.

297

Compare Meyer, Instit. Judic. vol. ii. p. 39, with Lingard's England, vol. ii. p. 127, and Somers Tracts, vol. vi. p. 92.

298

‘He is to be honoured as the founder of a representative system of government in this country.’ Campbell's Chief-Justices, vol. i. p. 61. Some writers (see, for instance, Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal Property, p. 332) suppose that burgesses were summoned before the reign of Henry III.: but this assertion is not only unsupported by evidence, but is in itself improbable; because at an early period the citizens, though rapidly increasing in power, were hardly important enough to warrant such a step being taken. The best authorities are now agreed to refer the origin of the House of Commons to the period mentioned in the text. See Hallam's Supplement, Notes, pp. 335–339; Spence's Origin of the Laws of Europe, p. 512; Campbell's Chancellors, vol. i. p. 155; Lingard's England, vol. ii. p. 138; Guizot's Essais, p. 319. The notion of tracing this to the wittenagemot is as absurd as finding the origin of juries in the system of compurgators; both of which were favourite errors in the seventeenth, and even in the eighteenth century. In regard to the wittenagemot, this idea still lingers among antiquaries: but, in regard to compurgators, even they have abandoned their old ground, and it is now well understood that trial by jury did not exist till long after the Conquest. Compare Palgrave's English Commonwealth, part i. pp. 243 seq., with Meyer, Instit. Judic. vol. ii. pp. 152–173. There are few things in our history so irrational as the admiration expressed by a certain class of writers for the institutions of our barbarous Anglo-Saxon ancestors.

299

Montlosier, with the fine spirit of a French noble, taunts the English aristocracy with this: ‘En France la noblesse, attaquée sans cesse, s'est défendue sans cesse. Elle a subi l'oppression; elle ne l'a point acceptée. En Angleterre, elle a couru dès la première commotion, se réfugier dans les rangs des bourgeois, et sous leur protection. Elle a abdiqué ainsi son existence.’ Montlosier, Monarchie Française, vol. iii. p. 162. Compare an instructive passage in De Staël, Consid. sur la Révolution, vol. i. p. 421.

300

See some good remarks in Mably, Observations sur l'Hist. de France, vol. iii. pp. 114, 115.

301

Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 111.

302

‘Originally there was no limit to subinfeudation.’ Brougham's Polit. Philos. vol. i. p. 279.

303

A living French historian boasts that, in his own country, ‘toute la société féodale formait ainsi une échelle de clientelle et de patronage.’ Cassagnac, Révolution Française, vol. i. p. 459.

304

This is 18 Edw. I. c. 1; respecting which, see Blackstone's Comment. vol. ii. p. 91, vol. iv. p. 425; Reeve's Hist. of English Law, vol. ii. p. 223; Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal Property, pp. 102, 243, 340.

305

The history of the decay of that once most important class, the English yeomanry, is an interesting subject, and one for which I have collected considerable materials; at present, I will only say, that its decline was first distinctly perceptible in the latter half of the seventeenth century, and was consummated by the rapidly-increasing power of the commercial and manufacturing classes early in the eighteenth century. After losing their influence, their numbers naturally diminished, and they made way for other bodies of men, whose habits of mind were less prejudiced, and therefore better suited to that new state which society assumed in the last age. I mention this, because some writers regret the almost total destruction of the yeoman freeholders; overlooking the fact, that they are disappearing, not in consequence of any violent revolution or stretch of arbitrary power, but simply by the general march of affairs; society doing away with what it no longer requires. Compare Kay's Social Condition of the People, vol. i. pp. 43, 602, with a letter from Wordsworth in Bunbury's Correspond. of Hanmer, p. 440; a note in Mill's Polit. Econ. vol. i. pp. 311, 312; another in Nichols's Lit. Anec. vol. v. p. 323; and Sinclair's Correspond. vol. i. p. 229.

306

This is stated as an admitted fact by French writers living in different periods and holding different opinions; but all agreed as to there being only two divisions: ‘comme en France on est toujours ou noble, ou roturier, et qu'il n'y a pas de milieu.’ Mém. de Rivarol, p. 7. ‘La grande distinction des nobles et des roturiers.’ Giraud, Précis de l'Ancien Droit, p. 10. Indeed, according to the Coutumes, the nobles and roturiers attained their majority at different ages. Klimrath, Hist. du Droit, vol. ii. p. 249 (erroneously stated in Story's Conflict of Laws, pp. 56, 79, 114). See further respecting this capital distinction, Mém. de Duplessis Mornay, vol. ii. p. 230 (‘agréable à la noblesse et au peuple’); Œuvres de Turgot, vol. viii. pp. 222, 232, 237; Bunbury's Correspond. of Hanmer, p. 256; Mably, Observations, vol. iii. p. 263; and Mercier sur Rousseau, vol. i. p. 38: ‘On étoit roturier, vilain, homme de néant, canaille, dès qu'on ne s'appelloit plus marquis, baron, comte, chevalier, etc.’

307

‘Les états-généraux sont portés dans la liste de nos institutions. Je ne sais cependant s'il est permis de donner ce nom à des rassemblemens aussi irréguliers.’ Montlosier, Monarchie Française, vol. i. p. 266. ‘En France, les états-généraux, au moment même de leur plus grand éclat, c'est à dire dans le cours du xive siècle, n'ont guère été que des accidents, un pouvoir national et souvent invoqué, mais non un établissement constitutionnel.’ Guizot, Essais, p. 253. See also Mably, Observations, vol. iii. p. 147; and Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xiv. p. 642.

308

This is frankly admitted by one of the most candid and enlightened of all the foreign writers on our history, Guizot, Essais, p. 297: ‘En 1307, les droits qui devaient enfanter en Angleterre un gouvernement libre étaient définitivement reconnus.’

309

See an account of the policy of Philip the Fair, in Mably, Observations, vol. ii. pp. 25–44; in Boulainvilliers, Ancien Gouvernement, vol. i. pp. 292, 314, vol. ii. pp. 37, 38; and in Guizot, Civilisation en France, vol. iv. pp. 170–192. M. Guizot says, perhaps too strongly, that his reign was ‘la métamorphose de la royauté en despotisme,’ On the connexion of this with the centralizing movement, see Tocqueville's Démocratie, vol. i. p. 307: ‘Le goût de la centralisation et la manie réglementaire remontent, en France, à l'époque où les légistes sont entrés dans le gouvernement; ce qui nous reporte au temps de Philippe le Bel.’ Tennemann also notices, that in his reign the ‘Rechtstheorie’ began to exercise influence; but this learned writer takes a purely metaphysical view, and has therefore misunderstood the more general social tendency. Gesch. der Philos. vol. viii. p. 823.