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Front Cover
A VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN EUROPE, FROM THE SUBVERSION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
to restrain them. They were given up as a prey to s E C T.
rates or banditti, rather than the steady operations sect.
or moderation. The spirit of industry was checked sect.
s E C T. to the King, the Lord Paramount '. A form of
*
ri se to a private war, forty days must elapse before s
>
ture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, had sect.
of mutual defence. They derived such advan- sect. tages from this union, that other towns acceded to L
A VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN EUROPE, FROM THE SUBVERSION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
s
were very extensive, with extraordinary vigour and sect.
concurrence with other causes, which it is not my SECT.
A VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN EUROPE, FROM THE SUBVERSION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
i
sect, the enterprising pontiffs who rilled the Papal throne about the beginning of the sixteenth century, to " engage in schemes seemingly the most extravagant. They trusted, that if their temporal power was not sufficient to carry them through with success, the respect paid to their spiritual dignity would enable them to extricate themselves with facility and with honour*1. But when Popes came to take part more frequently in the contests among Princes, and to engage as principals or auxiliaries in every war kindled in Europe, this veneration for their sacred character began to abate ; and striking instances will occur in the following History of its being almost totally extinct.
OF all the Italian powers, the republic of Venice, SECT.
only enthusiasts who have united the spirit of tole- sect.
new lustre or authority to the crown, he was talcing sec t.
the ties of blood as well as of duty, and to join the SECT.
:
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
nally seated, from Jornandes, Paulus Warnefridus, or Gregory of Tours, the earliest and most au thentic historians of these people, he will be mise rably disappointed. Whatever imperfect knowledge has been conveyed to us of their ancient state, we owe not to their own writers, but to the Greek and Roman historians.
produced are sufficient to justify the account which I have given in the text, and to prove, that the de struction of the human species, occasioned by the hostile invasions of the northern nations, and their subsequent settlements, was much greater than many authors seem to imagine.
greater, perhaps, than any that history affords an opportunity of observing between any two races of uncivilized people, and this has produced a surpris ing similarity of manners.
NOTE VIII. Sect. I. p. 16. [H]
quence of his allodial property, was bound to serve
1
in Salmone quam in Solomone." Alanus de Art.
town, and were the property of the community.
NOTE XVII. Sect. I. p. 37. [R]
this period, the number of cities continued to in
. . NOTE XVIII. Sect. I. p. 37. [S] The Spanish historians are almost entirely silent concerning the origin and progress of communities in that kingdom ; so that I cannot fix, with any de gree of certainty, the time and manner of their first introduction there. It appears however, from Ma riana, vol. ii. p. 221. fol. Hagae, 1736, that in the year 1350 eighteen cities had obtained a seat in the Cortes of Castile. From the account which will
condition to extort any extensive privileges. That the constitution of the boroughs in Scotland, in many circumstances, resembled that of the towns in France and England, is manifest from the Leges Burgorum annexed to the Regiam Majestatem.
the legislature. As the feudal system was carried to its utmost height in France sooner than in En gland, so it began to decline sooner in the former than in the latter kingdom. In England, almost all attempts to establish or to extend the liberty of the people have been successful ; in France they have proved unfortunate. What were the acci dental events, or political causes, which occasioned this difference, it is not my present business to in quire.
year 1514, we find a charter of Henry VIII. en franchising two slaves belonging to one of his manors. Rym. Feeder. vol. xiii. p. 470. As late as the year 1574, there is a commission from Queen Elizabeth with respect to the manumission of cer tain bondmen belonging to her. Rymer, in Ob- servat. on the Statutes, &c. p. 251.
the martial ideas to which ecclesiastics of noble birth
ed with extraordinary rigour. It was an act of di
NOTE XXV. Sect. I. p. 74. [BB]
considered corame un Establissement politique & militaire, par M. de la Curne de St. Palaye.
shows likewise that they already began to consider other professions beside that of a soldier as honour able and useful.
disorders ; and such acts of violence were become
traditore Domini, in terra mortis et tenebrarum ; donee corda vestra ad satisfactionem plenam con- vertantur. — Ne cessent a vobis hae maledictiones, scelerum vestrorum persecutrices, quamdiu per- manebitis in peccato pervasionis. Amen, Fiat, Fiat." Bouquet, ibid. p. 517.
. 382 TROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
i
in the preceding Note, and alluded to in the text,
presented in these two meetings of the Cortes, I am unable to explain.
hombreS) hidalgos^ and cavalleros, by the Kings of Castile, in reward for the assistance which they had received from them in expelling the Moors. They likewise obtained by the same means a considerable influence in the cities, many of which anciently de pended upon the nobility. Politica para Corregi- dores. Amb. 1750, fol. vol. i. 440. 442.
NOTE XXXVI. Sect. III. p. 178. [NN]
But in the present age it must excite some sur prise, to see the institution of an illustrious order connected with a doctrine so extravagant and desti tute of any foundation in Scripture.
of Paris. All of them are formed upon the model of that most ancient and respectable tribunal, and all my observations concerning it will apply with full force to them.
NOTE XLIV. Sect. III. p. 210, [XX]
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