‹ Miscellaneous works of Edward Gibbon, EsqChapitre 142 sur 165 · EXTRACTS FROM. MR. GIBBON’S GOMMON-PLACE BOOKS, &c · texte numérisé non relu

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Hoc rupere loco Bernates hostica castra, Multos et cum justo: Marte dedère nect.

(2) Les armes Sic Deus Omnipoteus ab apertis protegat Ursum, (2) de Berne sont N Protegat occultis hostis ab insidiis.

Néanmoins, si l’on s’en rapporte à M. de Watteville, i ya deux méprises dans cette courte inscription. I°** Cussinus, ou le sire de Coucy, n’étoit point un général Anglois; il avoit épousé, a la vérité,

, une princesse d’ Angleterre, et son armée étoit principalement composée de troupes non autorisées de cette ‘nation; mais pour Cussinus lui. même, il étoit seigneur Francois. Sa famille, une des plus illustres de la Picardie, s’éteignit au quinzième siècle. II" La femme de ce de Coucy n’étoit point Autrichienne; je viens de dire qu’elle étoit An. gloise. La femme de son père étoit Autrichienne, et c'étoit sa dot quil redemandoit.. J’omets la petite faute de parler d’un duc d'Autriche son frère quoiqu’elle fut fille unique de Léopold archiduc d'Autriche’,

/ "There is some philosophical amusement in tracing the birth and progress of error. Till the beginning of the ninth century, the. two Dionysii of Athens, and of Paris, however adorned with imaginary trophies, were carefully distinguished from each other in the Greek and in the Latin churches. Under the reign of Lewis, the son of Charlemagne, about the year 824, Hilduia, abbot of St. Denys, resolved ~ to confound them, and to dignify the Gallican church, by assigning its otigin, not to an obscure bishop of the third century, but to a celebrated philosopher of Athens, who received ” his mission from the Apostles themselves. As the genuine writers of antiquity refused to countenance this opinion, Hilduia, though he sometimes. quoted and corrupted them, found it necessary to create the works of Aristarchus, of Visbius, &c. which existed only in his fancy, or, at the most, in the suspicious archives of his convent. The zeal and correspondence of the Benedictine monks spread the tale as far as Rome and Constantinople. It was published by Anastasius in the Latin, and by Methodius

* The Common-place Book from which the preceding article are taken is dated March, 17 55.

in

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in the Greek tongue. From the east, it ‘was reverberated back into France with such an increase of sound, it Was so grateful to the ear of national -vanity, that as early as the yéar 876, the famous Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, could scarcely persuade himself that there still existed any remains of incredulity. In the seventeenth century, Sirmond the Jesuit, and the indefatigable Launoy, ventured to restore the long-lost distinction of the two Dionysii; and the bigots, ‘after. some straggle, were reduced to silence. See Varia de duobus Dionysiis. Opuscula, in 8vo. Paris, 1660. | ‘ The two extraordinary circumstances in the legend of George of Cappadocia are his gradual transformations from a heretic to a saint, and from.a saint to a knight-errant. 1. It clearly appears from Epiphanius (Hæres. Ixxvi.) that some persons revered George as a martyr, because he had ‘been massacred by the fury ofthe Pagans. But as Epiphanius observes, with truth, that his vices, not his faith, had been the ‘cause of his death; the Arians disguised the object of their veneration by changing the time and place of his martyrdom, stigmatised his‘adversary Athanasius under the title of Athanasius the Magician, and when they returned to the Catholic church, they brought with them a new saint of whose teal character they had insensibly lost the remembrance, At first, he was received with coldness and distrust; ind in the year 494, the Council of Rome, held under Pope Gelasius, mentions his acts as composed by the ‘heretics, and‘his persoh as better known to God — than tomen. -But in the succeeding century his glory bréke out with sudden lustre, ‘both in-the east and in the west. See the contemporary testimonies of Procopius {de Edificiis, 1. iii); of Venantius Fortunatus (1. ii. carm. 13); of Gregory of Tours (de Gloria Martyrum, 1. i. C. 101); and of Gregory of Rome (in Libro Sacrament.) New legends were’tuvented by the lively fancy of the Greeks, which described the stupendous miracles and sufferings of the great martyr: and from Lydda in Palestine, (see :Glaber, L ‘ili..c. '% “Wilhelm. Tyr. L 8: (22),) the sup. posed place of-his burial, devout pilgrims transported the suspicious relics which adorned the temples erected to his honour in all the "countries of Europe and Asia. 2. The genius of chivalry and romance wistook the symboli¢al representations which were common to St. VOL, IIE - 3 y | | George

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George of Cappadocia, and to several: other saints, the dragon painted ‘under ,their. feet-was designed for. the devil,-whom the martyr trans pierced with the: spiritual lance of faith, and thus delivered the church, ' described under the figure of a woman. But in the time of the crusades the dragon,,so common in.eastern romance, was considered asa real monster slain near-the city.of Silena, in Libya, by the Christian ‘hero, who (like another Perseus), delivered from:his fury a beautiful and royal. damsel, named. St. Margaret. In the great battle of Antioch, St. George fought on the side of the Christians, at the head of an innumerable. host, whose shields, banners, &c. were perfectly white : and the truth of this : prodigy, so analogous to his’ character, is attested by contemporaries and eye-witnesses. (Robert. Hist. Hierosolym. 1. v. et. vii. - Petrus Tudebrod. ap. Duchesne, tom. iv.). The name of St. George, who.on other occasions, in Spain and Italy, is said to have lent a similar aid, was invoked by princes and warriors as that of their peculiar patron. Cities and kingdoms, Malta, Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia, Arragon, England, &c. adopted-him as their tutelary saint; and even the Turks have vied -with the Christians i in celebrating the martial prowess of their celestial enemy, whom they style : the knight of.the white ‘horse. (Cotobii. in Itinerar. Cantacuzen in Apol: iü. contra Mahametanos.) An ample collection of whatever relates to St. George may.be found in the Bollandists. Acta Sanctorum, mens. Agril: iii: 100-153, - The first who discovered the Arian persecutor under the mask of sanctity was ‘Isaac Pontanus. de Rebus Amsteled..L ii. c. 4. and. although Father Papebroch.( Acta S. S: Boll..p. 112.) is extremely. angry with him, the more candid Abbé de Longuerne (Longuewand) embraces the opinion of Pontanus with pleasure, and-assurance..- Perhaps our knights of the garter.would be somewhat astonished at reading ! this short history. of their patron. wo

| It would be absurd to quote, or even to refute the recent forgeries of Flavius. Dexter, Marcus Maximus, Julian Peter, or Liutprand, by which the Spaniards have endeavoured to support their favourite tra: dition, that they received the Gospel. from the Apostle St. James, in the f fifteen. years which elapsed between the death of Christ and: his own

' martyrdom.

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martyrdom. .If we except.the ambiguous passage of St. Jerome, (Comment. ad Isaiam, c. 38. 42.) the earliest testimonies which can be produced are those of two Spanish bishops, Isidore of Seville and Julian of: | Toledo, who both flourished in the seventh century. In the ancient. liturgy, which after the conquest of the Arabs acquired the title of Mozarabic, St. James is celebrated as the Apostle of Spain. His pre-: tensions were peaceably admitted into the offices of most of the Latin churches, and when with the other arts, the ast of criticism was restored, : he could already boast an uninterrupted possession of 900 years. When the Roman. Breviary. was corrected under. Clement VIII. a serious: attention was paid to the doubts of Cardinal Baronius, and the positive assertion of the mission of St. James into Spain was exchanged for the quaitied expression of “ mox Hispaniam adiisse, et aliquos discipulos: ad fidem convertisse ecclesiarum illius provincie. traditio est.””. This. national disgrace was. obliterated in the year 1635, after forty years. negociation ; but by the anxious policy. of the court of Rome the new. form was composed in sich a manner as to guard the pre-eminence of- St. Peter from the interference of any other: Apostle in the West. From. that time the ‘Spaniards have triumphed; the French critics Noël,: Alexandre, and Tillemont, have been obliged to offer their difficulties . with diffidence and respect; and it is pleasant: enough to see them stigmatised as free-thinkers by the Bollandists. Acta Sanctorum, mens, July tom. vi. p. 69—114. ;

maps

| About the year 814, one hundred years “after the conquest of Spain by the-Arabs, Theodeorier, Bishop of Iria Flavia, i in Gallicia, guided by some nocturnal and præternatural lights, had the good fortune to-discover in the adjacent forest of Compostella ‘an ancient tomb overgrown with brambles; which contained the body of the patron and Apostle of Spain. A rude and hasty chapel, suitable to the poverty of the Christians, was immediately built by Alphonso the Chaste, King of Leon ; and in the year 876, his successor Alphonso the Third erected on that spot a temple more worthy of the majesty of the saint. By the verses of Walafridus Strabo, (Cænis. Antiq. Lecteon. tom. vi. p. 661.) who died in 849, and by the martyrologies of Ado and Usward, it is evident 8 y¥ 2 that

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that: before the.end of the ninth century, the tomb of St. James was celebrated throughout Europe; nor was. it difficult to frame.a legend: whieh accounted for the conveyance of his body from the country where he. had suffered martyrdom to the country where he had preached the Gospel. The solitude of Compostella was insensibly changed into a flourishing city, which acquired the episcopal and even the metropolitan. honours of the. deserted sees of Iria.Flavia, and Merida. During the tenth. and the succeeding centuries, the Spaniards, the French, the: Germans, and the Flemings, resorted in pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostellz; and such was the ardour of their zeal, that: quarrels, and even murders, very: frequently happened while the several: nations. contended for the privilege of watching before the altar. (Innocent, III. Epistol. Edit. Baluz. 1. x. p. 46.) On this new theatre the - Apostle'of Spain soan displayed his miraculous powers for the relief of his.friends,and the punishment of his enemies. The former experienced his aid in the most imminent dangers and the most desperate diseases ; and the Arahian general Almanzar, who had dared to violate the. “Sanctuary. of Compostella, lost the greatest part of his army by the effects of the-dysentery (Sampirus Asturicensis, in Edit. Sandoonl. p. 70. Roderic: Tolatan. 1. v. e. 16.) . In the wars. between the Christians and the; Moors, it, was impossible that St. James could remain-an indifferent spactators and: the. Spanish: soldiers, particularly. the military order which under his patronage was founded in the 12th century, devoutly invoked his aid as that of a good and valiant knight; strange as that title might appear for a Saint who had probably never been on horseback, in his life, (see Monachus Siliensis apud Francise. de Bergauza Antiquit, Hispan. p. 5 43) it was soon justified by nocturnal visions, which prepared the minds of the Spaniards for the belief. of- a . more: public and visible apparition. At first it seems probable that they con-. tented themselves with celebrating the miraculous aid which, he, had. given. to their ancestors, and we. may observe that his exploits i in thebattle of. Clavigium 80° pompously described ‘by Mariana (1. vii. c. 13): and. Roderic, of Toledo (1: iv. c. 18)-are unnoticed; by the more ancjent,. writers. But,as the habits of faith were insensibly configmed-by time, and. by speed acts of one the warriors of. the twelfth. and >

that,

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that, with their own eyes, they had seen their heroic, apostle, mounted on 4.white horse, leading them-to battle and to victory. (See Lucas Tudensis ad Ann. 1230, tom, iv. Hispania: Ulustrat. p. 114) In suce. ceeding ages St. James displayed his prowess in Italy, Flanders, India, and. America, (see a curious circumstance in Robertson's History. of America, vol. ii. p. 448.) and his influence was felt, even when his pre=. sence was invisible. The day of-his festival was auspicious to the arms of Spain, according to the admirable observation. of Grotius, *“ Diem ~ quem Hispani felicem sibi credunt, et credendo sæpe faciunt.’? Charles. the Fifth chose for the invasion of. Provence that holy day which in the preceding year had. been crowned by the conquest of Tunis; but on this ‘occasion St. James and the. Emperor: were obliged to retire with disgrace. (See a fine ‘passage in the Mémoires. de: du Bellay, quoted. by the Abbé d’Artigny, Mélanges d’ Histoire, &c. tom, ii. p. 290.) it

The Bollandists, by. whom. I haye- been, guided, have. lahoured' the. article of St. James with indefatigable diligence, Act, Senctor. Mensis - Jul. tom, vi. p. 1—124

Tacitus describes the site of Jerusalem with his accustomed breÿity . and precision; ‘ duos. cols immensum editos claudebant murs per. artem obliqui” (Hist. v. 4, See likewise Josephus.de B. J.L vi c. 6.) The hill situated to.the south was called Sion, and originally. constituted. the ancient or upper city. The northern'hill called Acra was gradually covered by the Temple, by the buildings of the new or lower city, and” in modern. times by those which surround the modern sepulchre.. Je. rusalem has insensibly moyed toward the. nerth,. and the: hill of ‘Sion.is long since deserted,,

By the comparison of the measures taken on the spot by Des Haies. and.-Maunidrell; it appears that the actual cizoumference. of, Jerusalem amounts to 000 or 1960 French toises..

According. tothe. méssurement of..a, Syrian, engineer (Euseb. Prep. Evangel. L ix. c. 36.) the circumference, of: ancient Jerusalem was. twenty-seven stadid, which. gives’ us. 2540 toises, and agrees perfectly with. the nature of the ground as represented in Des Haies’s plan. =

It results fromthe best authorities, and. the most accurate measures, |

that the enclosure of the great. Mosque:of Jersalere (supposed to. can: " tain,

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