Chapter LXXI: Part 71

A little more than a month from the overthrow of Andros a ship
from England arrived at Boston, with news of the proclamation
of William and Mary. This was joyful intelligence to the body
of the people. The magistrates were at once relieved from
their fears, for the revolution in the old world justified
that in the new. Three days later the proclamation was
published with unusual ceremony. … A week later the
representatives of the several towns, upon a new choice, met
at Boston, and proposals were made that charges should be
forthwith drawn up against Andros, or that all the prisoners
but Andros should be liberated on bail; but both propositions
were rejected. The representatives likewise urged the
unconditional resumption of the charter, declaring that they
could not act in any thing until this was conceded. Many
opposed the motion; but it was finally adopted; and it was
resolved that all the laws in force May 12, 1686, should be
continued until further orders. Yet the magistrates, conscious
of the insecurity of the position they occupied, used
prudently the powers intrusted to them." Meantime, Increase
Mather, who had gone to England before the Revolution took
place as agent for the colony, had procured an audience with
the new king, William III., and received from him an assurance
that he would remove Andros from the government of New England
and call him to an account for his administration. "Anxious
for the restoration of the old charter and its privileges,
under which the colony had prospered so well, the agent
applied himself diligently to that object, advising with the
wisest statesmen for its accomplishment. It was the concurrent
judgment of all that the best course would be to obtain first
a reversion of the judgment against the charter by an act of
Parliament, and then apply to the king for such additional
privileges as were necessary. Accordingly, in the House of
Commons, where the whole subject of seizing charters in the
reign of Charles II. was up for discussion, the charters of
New England were inserted with the rest; and, though enemies
opposed the measure, it was voted that their abrogation was a
grievance, and that they should be forthwith restored." But
before the bill having this most satisfactory effect had been
acted on in the House of Lords, the Convention Parliament was
prorogued, then dissolved, and the next parliament proved to
be less friendly. An order was obtained, however, from the
king, continuing the government of the colony under the old
charter until a new one was settled, and requiring Andros and
his fellow prisoners to be sent to England for trial. On the
trial, much court influence seemed to go in favor of Sir
Edmund; the proceedings against him were summarily quashed,
and he was discharged. Soon afterwards he was made governor of
Virginia, while Dudley received appointment to the office of
chief justice at New York. Contending against the intrigues of
the Andros party, and many other adverse influences, the
agents of Massachusetts were reluctantly forced at last to
relinquish all hopes of the restoration of the old charter,
and "application was made for a new grant, which should
confirm the privileges of the old instrument, and such in
addition as the experience of the people had taught them would
be of benefit. … The king was prevailed upon to refer the
affairs of New England to the two lords chief justices and the
attorney and solicitor-general, all of whom were supposed to
be friendly to the applicants. Mr. Mather was permitted to
attend their meetings." Difficulties arose in connection with
Plymouth Colony. It was the determination in England that
Plymouth should no longer be separately chartered, but should
be joined to Massachusetts or New York. In opposing the former
more natural union, the Plymouth people very nearly brought
about their annexation to New York; but Mather's influence
averted that result. "The first draught of a charter was
objected to by the agents, because of its limitation of the
powers of the governor, who was to be appointed by the king.
The second draught was also objected to; whereupon the agents
were informed that they 'must not consider themselves as
plenipotentiaries from a foreign state, and that if they were
unwilling to submit to the pleasure of the king, his majesty
would settle the country without them, and they might take
what would follow.'
{2113}
Nothing remained, therefore, but to decide whether they would
submit, or continue without a charter, and at the mercy of the
king." The two colleagues who had been associated with Mather
opposed submission, but the latter yielded, and the charter
was signed. "By the terms of this new charter the territories
of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Maine, with a tract farther
east, were united into one jurisdiction, whose officers were
to consist of a governor, a deputy governor, and a secretary,
appointed by the king, and 28 councillors, chosen by the
people. A General Court was to be holden annually, on the last
Wednesday in May, and at such other times as the governor saw
fit; and each town was authorized to choose two deputies to
represent them in this court. The choice of these deputies was
conceded to all freeholders having an estate of the value of
forty pounds sterling, or land yielding an income of at least
forty shillings per annum; and every deputy was to take the
oath of allegiance prescribed by the crown. All residents of
the province and their children were entitled to the liberties
of natural born subjects; and liberty of conscience was
secured to all but Papists. … To the governor was given a
negative upon all laws enacted by the General Court; without
his consent in writing none were valid; and all receiving his
sanction were to be transmitted to the king for approval, and
if rejected at any time within three years were to be of no
effect. The governor was empowered to establish courts, levy
taxes, convene the militia, carry on war, exercise martial
law, with the consent of the council, and erect and furnish an
requisite forts. … Such was the province charter of 1692—a
far different instrument from the colonial charter of 1629. It
effected a thorough revolution in the country. The form of
government, the powers of the people, and the entire
foundation and objects of the body politic, were placed upon a
new basis; and the dependence of the colonies upon the crown
was secured. … It was on Saturday, the 14th of May, 1692,
that Sir William Phips arrived at Boston as the first governor
of the new province."

_J. S. Barry,
History of Massachusetts,
volume 1, chapter 18._

ALSO IN:
_W. H. Whitmore,
The Inter-Charter Period
(Memorial History of Boston, volume 2)._

_G. P. Fisher,
The Colonial Era,
chapter 13._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1689-1697.
King William's War.
Temporary conquest of Acadia.
Disastrous expedition against Quebec.
Threatened attack by the French.

See CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690; and 1692-1697.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1690.
The first Colonial Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1690.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692.
The Salem Witchcraft madness: in its beginning.

"The people of Massachusetts in the 17th century, like all
other Christian people at that time,—at least, with extremely
rare individual exceptions,—believed in the reality of a
hideous crime called 'witchcraft.' … In a few instances
witches were believed to have appeared in the earlier years of
New England. But the cases had been sporadic. … With three
or four exceptions … no person appears to have been punished
for witchcraft in Massachusetts, nor convicted of it, for more
than sixty years after the settlement, though there had been
three or four trials of other persons suspected of the crime.
At the time when the question respecting the colonial charter
was rapidly approaching an issue, and the public mind was in
feverish agitation, the ministers sent out a paper of
proposals for collecting facts concerning witchcrafts and
other 'strange apparitions.' This brought out a work from
President [Increase] Mather entitled 'Illustrious
Providences,' in which that influential person related
numerous stories of the performances of persons leagued with
the Devil. The imagination of his restless young son [Cotton
Mather] was stimulated, and circumstances fed the flame." A
poor Irish washerwoman, in Boston, accused by some malicious
children named Goodwin, who played antics which were supposed
to signify that they had been bewitched, was tried, convicted
and sent to the gallows (1688) as a witch. "Cotton Mather took
the oldest 'afflicted' girl to his house, where she
dexterously played upon his self-conceit to stimulate his
credulity. She satisfied him that Satan regarded him as his
most terrible enemy, and avoided him with especial awe. …
Mather's account of these transactions ['Late Memorable
Providences relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions'], with a
collection of other appropriate matter, was circulated not
only in Massachusetts, but widely also in England, where it
obtained the warm commendation of Richard Baxter; and it may
be supposed to have had an important effect in producing the
more disastrous delusion which followed three years after. …
Mr. Samuel Parris was minister of a church in a part of Salem
which was then called 'Salem Village,' and which now as a
separate town bears the name of Danvers. He was a man of
talents, and of repute for professional endowments, but
avaricious, wrong-headed, and ill-tempered. Among his
parishioners, at the time of his installation and afterwards,
there had been angry disputes about the election of a
minister, which had never been composed. Neighbors and
relations were embittered against each other. Elizabeth
Parris, the minister's daughter, was now nine years old. A
niece of his, eleven years old, lived in his family. His
neighbor, Thomas Putnam, the parish clerk, had a daughter
named Ann, twelve years of age. These children, with a few
other young women, of whom two were as old as twenty years or
thereabouts, had become possessed with a wild curiosity about
the sorceries of which they had been hearing and reading, and
used to hold meetings for study, if it may be so called, and
practice. They learned to go through motions similar to those
which had lately made the Goodwin children so famous. They
forced their limbs into grotesque postures, uttered unnatural
outcries, were seized with cramps and spasms, became incapable
of speech and of motion. By and by [March, 1692], they
interrupted public worship. … The families were distressed.
The neighbors were alarmed. The physicians were perplexed and
baffled, and at length declared that nothing short of witchery
was the trouble. The kinsfolk of the 'afflicted children'
assembled for fasting and prayer. Then the neighboring
ministers were sent for, and held at Mr. Parris's house a
prayer-meeting which lasted through the day. The children
performed in their presence, and the result was a confirmation
by the ministers of the opinion of the doctors. Of course, the
next inquiry was by whom the manifest witchcraft was
exercised.
{2114}
It was presumed that the unhappy girls could give the answer.
For a time they refused to do so. But at length, yielding to
an importunity which it had become difficult to escape unless
by an avowal of their fraud, they pronounced the names of
Good, Osborn, and Tituba. Tituba—half Indian, half
negro—was a servant of Mr. Parris, brought by him from
Barbadoes, where he had formerly been a merchant. Sarah Good
was an old woman, miserably poor. Sarah Osborn had been
prosperous in early life. She had been married twice, and her
second husband was still living, but separated from her. Her
reputation was not good, and for some time she had been
bedridden, and in a disturbed nervous state. … Tituba,
whether in collusion with her young mistress, or, as was
afterwards said, in consequence of having been scourged by Mr.
Parris, confessed herself to be a witch, and charged Good and
Osborn with being her accomplices. The evidence was then
thought sufficient, and the three were committed to gaol for
trial. Martha Corey and Rebecca Nourse were next cried out
against. Both were church-members of excellent character, the
latter, seventy years of age. They were examined by the same
Magistrates, and sent to prison, and with them a child of
Sarah Good, only four or five years old, also charged with
diabolical practices."

_J. G. Palfrey,
History of New England,
book 4, chapter 4 (volume 4)._

ALSO IN:
_C. W. Upham,
Salem Witchcraft,
part 3 (volume 2)._

_S. G. Drake,
Annals of Witchcraft in New England._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692.
The Salem Witchcraft madness: in its culmination.

"Now a new feature of this thing showed itself. The wife of
Thomas Putnam joined the children, and 'makes most terrible
shrieks' against Goody Nurse—that she was bewitching her,
too. On the 3d of April, Minister Parris preached long and
strong from the Text, 'Have I not chosen you twelve, and one
of you is a devil?' in which he bore down so hard upon the
Witches accused that Sarah Cloyse, the sister of Nurse, would
not sit still, but 'went out of meeting'; always a wicked
thing to do, as they thought, but now a heinous one. At once
the children cried out against her, and she was clapt into
prison with the rest. Through the months of April and May,
Justices Hawthorne and Curwin (or Corwin), with Marshal George
Herrick, were busy getting the Witches into jail, and the good
people were startled, astounded, and terror-struck, at the
numbers who were seized. … Bridget Bishop, only, was then
brought to trial, for the new Charter and new Governor
(Phips), were expected daily. She was old, and had been
accused of witchcraft twenty years before. … So, as there
was no doubt about her, she was quickly condemned, and hung on
the 10th day of this pleasant June, in the presence of a crowd
of sad and frightened people. … The new Governor, Phips, one
of Mather's Church, fell in with the prevailing fear, and a
new bench of special Judges, composed of Lieutenant-Governor
Stoughton, Major Saltonstall, Major Richards, Major Gidney,
Mr. Wait Winthrop, Captain Sewall, and Mr. Sargent, were sworn
in, and went to work. On the 30th of June, Sarah Good, Rebeka
Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth How, and Sarah Wilder, were
brought to trial; all were found guilty, and sentenced to
death, except Nurse, who, being a Church member, was acquitted
by the jury. At this, the 'afflicted' children fell into fits,
and others made great outcries; and the popular
dissatisfaction was so great, that the Court sent them back to
the jury room, and they returned shortly, with a verdict of
Guilty! The Rev. Mr. Noyes, of Salem, then excommunicated
Nurse, delivered her to Satan, and they all were led out to
die. Minister Noyes told Susannah Martin that she was a witch,
and knew it, and she had better confess it; but she refused,
and told him that 'he lied,' and that he knew it; and, 'that
if he took away her life, God would give him blood to drink;'
which curse is now traditionally believed, and that he was
choked with blood. They were hanged, protesting their
innocence; and there was none to pity them. On the 5th of
August, a new batch was haled before the Court. Reverend
George Burroughs, John Proctor and his wife, John Willard,
George Jacobs, and Martha Carrier. Burroughs was disliked by
some of the Clergy, for he was tinctured with Roger Williams's
Heresies of Religious Freedom; and he was particularly
obnoxious to Mather, for he had spoken slightingly of
witchcraft, and had even said there was no such thing as a
witch. Willard had been a constable employed in seizing
witches, but, becoming sick of the business, had refused to do
it any more. The children at once cried out, that he, too, was
a witch; he fled for his life, but was caught at Nashua, and
brought back. Old Jacobs was accused by his own
grand-daughter; and Carrier was convicted upon the testimony
of her own children. They were all quickly convicted and
sentenced. … All but Mrs. Proctor saw the last of earth on
the 19th of August. They were hanged on Gallows Hill. Minister
Burroughs made so moving a prayer, closing with the Lord's
Prayer, which it was thought no witch could say, that there
was fear lest the crowd should hinder the hanging. As soon as
he was turned off, Mr. Mather, sitting on his horse, addressed
the people, to prove to them that Burroughs was really no
Minister, and to show how he must be guilty, notwithstanding
his prayer, for the devil could change himself into an angel
of light. … Giles Cory, an old man of 80, saw that the
accused were prejudged, and refused to plead to the charge
against him. What could be done with him? It was found that
for this, by some sort of old law, he might be pressed to
death. So on the 16th of September, just as the autumn tints
were beginning to glorify the earth, he was laid on the
ground, bound hand and foot, and stones were piled upon him,
till the tongue was pressed out of his mouth; 'the Sheriff
with his cane forced it in again when he was dying.' Such
cruel things did fear—fear of the Devil—lead these people
to do. He was the first and last who died in New England in
this way. On the 22d of September, eight of the sentenced were
carted up Gallows Hill and done to death. Amid a great
concourse of men, women, and children, from the neighboring
villages, and from Boston, the victims went crying and
singing, dragged through the lines of terror-stricken or
pitying people. Some would have rescued them, but they had no
leaders, and knew not how to act; so that tragedy was
consummated; and the Reverend Mr. Noyes, pointing at them,
said, 'What a sad thing it is to see eight fire-brands of hell
hanging there!' Sad indeed!
{2115}
Nineteen had now been hung. One pressed to death. Eight were
condemned. A hundred and fifty were in prison; and two hundred
more were accused by the 'afflicted.' Some fifty had
acknowledged themselves witches, of whom not one was executed.
… It was now October, and this mischief seemed to be
spreading like fire among the dry grass of the Prairies; and a
better quality of persons was beginning to be accused by the
bewitched. … But these accusations made people consider, and
many began to think that they had been going on too fast. 'The
juries changed sooner than the judges, and they sooner than
the Clergy.' 'At last,' says one of them, 'it was evidently
seen that there must be a stop put, or the generation of the
church of God would fall under that condemnation.' In other
words, the better class of church members were in danger! At
the January session, only three were convicted, and they were
reprieved; whereat Chief Justice Stoughton rose in anger, and
said, 'The Lord be merciful to this country!' In the spring,
Governor Phips, being about to leave the country, pardoned all
who were condemned, and the jails were delivered. The
excitement subsided as rapidly as it had arisen, but the evil
work was done."

_C. W. Elliott,
The New England History,
volume 2, chapter 3._

ALSO IN:
_S. P. Fowler, editor,
Salem Witchcraft (including Calef's
"More Wonders of the Invisible World," etc.)._

_C. S. Osgood and H. M. Batchelder,
Historical Sketch of Salem,
chapter 2._

_J. S. Barry,
History of Massachusetts,
volume 2, chapter 2._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692-1693.
The Salem Witchcraft madness: its ending, and the reaction.

"On the second Wednesday in October, 1692, about a fortnight
after the last hanging of eight at Salem, the representatives
of the colony assembled; and the people of Andover, their
minister joining with them, appeared with their remonstrance
against the doings of the witch tribunals. Of the discussions
that ensued no record is preserved; we know only the issue.
The general court ordered by bill a convocation of ministers,
that the people might be led in the right way as to the
witchcraft. … They abrogated the special court, established
a tribunal by statute, and delayed its opening till January of
the following year. This interval gave the public mind
security and freedom; and though Phips still conferred the
place of chief judge on Stoughton, yet jurors acted
independently. When, in January, 1693, the court met at Salem,
six women of Andover, renouncing their confessions, treated
the witchcraft but as something so called, the bewildered but
as 'seemingly afflicted.' A memorial of like tenor came from
the inhabitants of Andover. Of the presentments, the grand
jury dismissed more than half; and of the twenty-six against
whom bills were found through the testimony on which others
had been condemned, verdicts of acquittal followed. … The
people of Salem village drove Parris from the place; Noyes
regained favor only by a full confession and consecrating the
remainder of his life to deeds of mercy. Sewall, one of the
judges, by rising in his pew in the Old South meeting-house on
a fast-day and reading to the whole congregation a paper in
which he bewailed his great offence, recovered public esteem.
Stoughton never repented. The diary of Cotton Mather proves
that he, who had sought the foundation of faith in tales of
wonders, himself 'had temptations to atheism, and to the
abandonment of all religion as a mere delusion.'"

_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
part 3, chapter 3 (volume 2)._

"It was long before the public mind recovered from its
paralysis. No one knew what ought to be said or done, the
tragedy had been so awful. The parties who had acted in it
were so numerous, and of such standing, including almost all
the most eminent and honored leaders of the community from the
bench, the bar, the magistracy, the pulpit, the medical
faculty, and in fact all classes and descriptions of persons;
the mysteries connected with the accusers and confessors; the
universal prevalence of the legal, theological, and
philosophical theories that had led to the proceedings; the
utter impossibility of realizing or measuring the extent of
the calamity; and the general shame and horror associated with
the subject in all minds; prevented any open movement. … Dr.
Bentley describes the condition of the community in some brief
and pregnant sentences … : 'As soon as the judges ceased to
condemn, the people ceased to accuse. … Terror at the
violence and guilt of the proceedings succeeded instantly to
the conviction of blind zeal; and what every man had
encouraged all professed to abhor. Few dared to blame other
men, because few were innocent. The guilt and the shame became
the portion of the country, while Salem had the infamy of
being the place of the transactions.'"

_C. W. Upham,
Salem Witchcraft,
volume 2, supplement._

"The probability seems to be that those who began in harmless
deceit found themselves at length involved so deeply, that
dread of shame and punishment drove them to an extremity where
their only choice was between sacrificing themselves, or
others to save themselves. It is not unlikely that some of the
younger girls were so far carried along by imitation or
imaginative sympathy as in some degree to 'credit their own
lie.' … Parish and boundary feuds had set enmity between
neighbors, and the girls, called on to say who troubled them,
cried out upon those whom they had been wont to hear called by
hard names at home. They probably had no notion what a
frightful ending their comedy was to have; but at any rate
they were powerless, for the reins had passed out of their
hands into the sterner grasp of minister and magistrate. …
In one respect, to which Mr. Upham first gives the importance
it deserves, the Salem trials were distinguished from all
others. Though some of the accused had been terrified into
confession, yet not one persevered in it, but all died
protesting their innocence, and with unshaken constancy,
though an acknowledgment of guilt would have saved the lives
of all. This martyr proof of the efficacy of Puritanism in the
character and conscience may be allowed to outweigh a great
many sneers at Puritan fanaticism."

_J. R. Lowell,
Witchcraft
(Among My Books, series 1)._

ALSO IN:
_G. M. Beard,
Psychology of the Salem Witchcraft Excitement._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1703-1711.
Queen Anne's War.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1702-1710;
and CANADA: A. D. 1711-1713.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1704.
The first Newspaper.

See PRINTING, &c.: A. D. 1704-1729.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1722-1725.
Renewed War with the northeastern Indians.

See NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1713-1730.

{2116}

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1744-1748.
King George's War.
The taking of Louisbourg and its restoration to France.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1744; 1745; and 1745-1748.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1754.
The Colonial Congress at Albany and Franklin's plan of Union.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1754.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1755.
Expedition against Fort Beau Séjour in Nova Scotia.

See NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1749-1755.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1755-1760.
The French and Indian War, and conquest of Canada.

See CANADA: A. D. 1750-1753, to 1760;
NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1749-1755, 1755;
OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754, 1754, 1755;
CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1758-1760.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1761.
Harsh enforcement of revenue laws.
The Writs of Assistance and Otis's speech.

"It was in 1761, immediately after the overthrow of the French
in Canada, that attempts were made to enforce the revenue laws
more strictly than heretofore; and trouble was at once
threatened. Charles Paxton, the principal officer of the
custom-house in Boston, applied to the Superior Court to grant
him the authority to use 'writs of assistance' in searching
for smuggled goods. A writ of assistance was a general
search-warrant, empowering the officer armed with it to enter,
by force if necessary, any dwelling-house or warehouse where
contraband goods were supposed to be stored or hidden. A
special search-warrant was one in which the name of the
suspected person, and the house which it was proposed to
search, were accurately specified, and the goods which it was
intended to seize were as far as possible described. In the
use of such special warrants there was not much danger of
gross injustice or oppression. … But the general
search-warrant, or 'writ of assistance,' as it was called
because men try to cover up the ugliness of hateful things by
giving them innocent names, was quite a different affair. It
was a blank form upon which the custom-house officer might
fill in the names of persons and descriptions of houses and
goods to suit himself. … The writ of assistance was
therefore an abominable instrument of tyranny. Such writs had
been allowed by a statute of the evil reign of Charles II.; a
statute of William III. had clothed custom-house officers in
the colonies with like powers to those which they possessed in
England; and neither of these statutes had been repealed.
There can therefore be little doubt that the issue of such
search-warrants was strictly legal, unless the authority of
Parliament to make laws for the colonies was to be denied.
James Otis then held the crown office of advocate-general,
with an ample salary and prospects of high favour from
government. When the revenue officers called upon him, in view
of his position, to defend their cause, he resigned his office
and at once undertook to act as counsel for the merchants of
Boston in their protest against the issue of the writs. A
large fee was offered him, but he refused it. 'In such a
cause,' said he, 'I despise all fees.' The case was tried in
the council-chamber at the east end of the old town-hall, or
what is now known as the 'Old State-House,' in Boston.
Chief-justice Hutchinson presided, and Jeremiah Gridley, one
of the greatest lawyers of that day, argued the case for the
writs in a very powerful speech. The reply of Otis, which took
five hours in the delivery, was one of the greatest speeches
of modern times. It went beyond the particular legal question
at issue, and took up the whole question of the constitutional
relations between the colonies and the mother-country. At the
bottom of this, as of all the disputes that led to the
Revolution, lay the ultimate question whether Americans were
bound to yield obedience to laws which they had no share in
making. This question, and the spirit that answered it flatly
and doggedly in the negative, were heard like an undertone
pervading all the arguments in Otis's wonderful speech, and it
was because of this that the young lawyer John Adams, who was
present, afterward declared that on that day 'the child
Independence was born.' Chief-justice Hutchinson … reserved
his decision until advice could be had from the law-officers
of the crown in London; and when next term he was instructed
by them to grant the writs, this result added fresh impetus to
the spirit that Otis's eloquence had aroused. The custom-house
officers, armed with their writs, began breaking into
warehouses and seizing goods which were said to have been
smuggled. In this rough way they confiscated private property
to the value of many thousands of pounds; but sometimes the
owners of warehouses armed themselves and barricaded their
doors and windows, and thus the officers were often
successfully defied, for the sheriff was far from prompt in
coming to aid them."

_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 4._

ALSO IN:
_W. Tudor,
Life of James Otis,
chapters 5-7._

_F. Bowen,
Life of James Otis
(Library of American Biographies,
series 2, volume 2), chapter 2-3._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1761-1766.
The question of taxation by Parliament.
The Sugar Act.
The Stamp Act and its repeal.
The Declaratory Act.
The Stamp Act Congress.
Non-importation agreements.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1760-1775, to 1766.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1768.
The Circular Letter to other colonies.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1767-1768.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1768-1770.
The quartering of troops in Boston.
The "Massacre."
Removal of the troops.

See BOSTON: A. D. 1768; and 1770.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1769.
The Boston patriots threatened.
Virginia roused to their support.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1769.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1770-1773.
Repeal of the Townshend duties except on Tea.
Committees of Correspondence instituted.
The coming of the Tea Ships.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1770; and 1772-1773.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1773.
Destruction of Tea at Boston.

See BOSTON: A. D. 1773.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1774.
The Boston Port Bill and the Massachusetts Act.
Free government destroyed and commerce interdicted.
The First Continental Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (MARCH-APRIL);
and BOSTON: A. D. 1774.

{2117}

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1774.
Organization of an independent Provisional Government.
The Committee of Safety.
Minute-men.

"Governor Gage issued writs, dated September 1, convening the
General Court at Salem on the 5th of October, but dissolved it
by a proclamation dated September 28, 1774. The members elected
to it, pursuant to the course agreed upon, resolved themselves
into a Provincial Congress. This body, on the 26th of October,
adopted a plan for organizing the militia, maintaining it, and
calling it out when circumstances should render it necessary.
It provided that one quarter of the number enrolled should be
held in readiness to muster at the shortest notice, who were
called by the popular name of minute-men. An executive
authority—the Committee of Safety—was created, clothed with
large discretionary powers; and another called the Committee
of Supplies."

_R. Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston,
page 41._

Under the Provincial Congress and the energetic Committee of
Safety (which consisted at the beginning of Hancock, Warren
and Church, of Boston, Richard Devens of Charlestown, Benj.
White of Brookline, Joseph Palmer of Braintree, Abraham Watson
of Cambridge, Azor Orne of Marblehead, and Norton Quincy, who
declined) a complete and effective administration of
government, entirely independent of royal authority, was
brought into operation. Subsequently, John Pigeon of Newton,
William Heath of Roxbury, and Jabez Fisher of Wrentham, were
added to the committee.

_R. Frothingham,
Life and Times of Joseph Warren,
page 389._

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (APRIL).

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1775.
The beginning of the War of the American Revolution.
Lexington.
Concord.
The country in arms and Boston under siege.
Ticonderoga.
Bunker Hill
The Second Continental Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1775-1776.
Washington in command at Cambridge.
British evacuation of Boston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775-1776.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1776 (April-May).
Independence assumed and urged upon the General Congress.

"Massachusetts had for nearly a year acted independently of
the officers of the crown. … The General Court, at their
session in April [1776], passed a resolve to alter the style
of writs and other legal processes—substituting 'the people
and government of Massachusetts' for George III.; and, in
dating official papers, the particular year of the king was
omitted, and only the year of our Lord was mentioned. Early in
May, likewise, an order was passed and published, by which the
people of the several towns in the province were advised to
give instructions to their respective representatives, to be
chosen for the following political year, on the subject of
independence. It is not contended that this was the first
instance in which such a proposition was publicly made; for
North Carolina had, two weeks before, authorized her delegates
to join with the other colonies in declaring independence; and
Rhode Island and Connecticut had indicated their inclination
by dispensing with the oath of allegiance to the king, though
a month elapsed before the Connecticut Assembly instructed
their delegates to vote for independence. The returns from the
towns of Massachusetts were highly encouraging, and in nearly
every instance the instructions to their representatives were
favorable to an explicit declaration of independence."

_J. S. Barry,
History of Massachusetts,
volume 3, chapter 3._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1776 (July).
The Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (JULY).

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1776-1777.
The struggle for New York and the Hudson.
The campaigns in New Jersey and on the Delaware.
Burgoyne's invasion and surrender.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (AUGUST),
to 1777 (JULY-OCTOBER).

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1777-1783.
The Articles of Confederation.
Alliance with France.
Treason of Arnold.
The war in the south.
Surrender of Cornwallis.
Peace.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1781, to 1783.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1779.
Framing and adoption of a State Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1779.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1781.
Emancipation of Slaves.

See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1638-1781.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1785.
Western territorial claims
and their cession to the United States.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1786.
Settlement of land claims with New York.
The cession of western New York.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1786-1799.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1786-1787.
The Shays Rebellion.

"The Shays Rebellion, which takes its name from the leader of
the insurgents, Daniel Shays, lately a captain in the
Continental army, had its taproot in the growing spirit of
lawlessness. But special causes of discontent were traceable
to an unequal distribution of wealth and excessive land
taxation in Massachusetts, the sole seat of the outbreak.
Governor Bowdoin and his party strove vigorously to reduce the
State debt and keep up the public credit at a period of great
public depression. But this strained severely the farmers and
citizens of moderate means in the inland towns. Private
creditors pressed their debtors, while the State pressed all.
Attachments were put upon the poor man's cattle and teams, and
his little homestead was sacrificed under the sheriff's
hammer. It was no sign of prosperity that the dockets of the
county courts were crowded, and that lawyers and court
officers put in the sickle. There was common complaint of the
high salaries of public officials and the wasteful cost
attending litigation. One might suppose that a legislature
annually chosen would soon remedy this state of things. But
the inhabitants of the western counties took the short cut of
resisting civil process and openly defying the laws. And
herein their error lay. Shays rallied so large a force of
malcontents about Worcester in the fall of 1786 that the
sheriff and his deputies were powerless against them, and no
court could be held. … This first success of the
Massachusetts insurgents alarmed the friends of order
throughout the Union. … Congress, by this time an adept in
stealthy and diplomatic methods, offered secret aid to the
authorities of Massachusetts upon the pretext of dispatching
troops against the Indians. But the tender was not accepted;
for in James Bowdoin the State had an executive equal to the
emergency. Availing himself of a temporary loan from patriotic
citizens, he raised and equipped a militia force, large enough
to overawe the rebels, which, under General Lincoln's command,
was promptly marched against them. Shays appears to have had
more of the demagogue than warrior about him, and his
followers fled as the troops advanced [being finally surprised
and routed at Petersham, February 4, 1787]. By midwinter civil
order was restored; but the legislature made some concessions
not less just than prudent. The vanquished rebels were treated
with marked clemency. But Governor Bowdoin's energy lost him a
re-election the following spring, and one of the manliest
pioneers of Continental reform was remitted to private life
for the rest of his days. To him succeeded the veteran
Hancock, whose light shone through a horn-lantern of vanity
and love of popular applause."

_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 1, section 1._

ALSO IN:
_J. B. McMaster,
History of the People of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 3._

_J. G. Holland,
History of West Massachusetts,
volume 1, chapters 16-18._

_M. A. Green,
Springfield, 1636-1886,
chapter 14._

_J. E. A. Smith,
History of Pittsfield, 1734-1800,
chapters 21-22._

{2118}

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1788.
Ratification of the Federal Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787-1789.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1812-1814.
Opposition of Federalists to the war with England.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1814.
The Hartford Convention.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (DECEMBER).

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1818-1821.
The founding of Amherst College.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1820.
The district of Maine erected into a distinct State.

See MAINE: A. D. 1820.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1861 (April).
Prompt response to President Lincoln's call for troops.
Attack on the Sixth Regiment in Baltimore.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL).

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1861 (April-May).
The Eighth Regiment making its way to Washington.
Butler and Baltimore.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (APRIL-MAY: MARYLAND).

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1889.
The founding of Clark University.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1887-1889.

----------MASSACHUSETTS: End----------

MASSACRES.
Of Glenco.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1692.

MASSACRES:
Of the Mamelukes (1811).

See EGYPT: A. D. 1803-1811.

MASSACRES:
Of the Mountain Meadows (1857).

See UTAH: A. D. 1857-1859.

MASSACRES:
Of St. Bartholomew's Day.

MASSACRES:
See FRANCE: A. D. 1572.

MASSACRES:
Of St. Brice's Day (1002).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 979-1016.

MASSACRES:
Of September, 1792, in the Paris prisons.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

MASSACRES:
Of the Shiites.

See TURKS: A. D. 1481-1520.

MASSACRES:
The Sicilian Vespers (1282).

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1282-1300.

MASSAGETÆ, The.

See SCYTHIANS.

MASSALIANS, The.

See MYSTICISM.

MASSALIOTS.

The people of Massilia—ancient Marseilles.

MASSENA, Marshal, Campaigns of.

See FRANCE:
A. D. 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL);
1798-1799 (AUGUST-APRIL);
1799 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER) and (AUGUST-DECEMBER);
1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY);
1805 (MARCH-DECEMBER);
1805-1806 (DECEMBER-SEPTEMBER);
and SPAIN: A. D. 1810-1812.

MASSILIA.

The ancient name of Marseilles.

See PHOCÆANS.

MASSIMILIANO, Duke of Milan, A. D. 1512-1515.

MASSORETES.

See MASORETES.

MASULIPATAM, English capture of (1759).

See INDIA: A. D. 1758-1761.

MATAGUAYAS, The.

See BOLIVIA: ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

MATELOTAGE.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1639-1700.

MATHER, Cotton, and the Witchcraft excitement.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692.

MATHER, Increase, and the new Massachusetts Charter.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1689-1692.

MATILDA, Donation of the Countess.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1077-1102.

MATRONA, The.

The ancient name of the river Marne.

MATRONALIA, The.

An ancient Roman festival, celebrated on the Calends of March,
in memory of the intervention of the Sabine matrons, to make
peace between their Sabine kinsmen and their Roman husbands.

_H. G. Liddell,
History of Rome,
book 1, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

See ROME: THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN.

MATTHIAS,
Germanic Emperor, A. D. 1612-1619.

Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, 1457-1490.

MATTIACI, The.

The Mattiaci were an ancient German tribe friendly to Rome.
They inhabited a region in Nassau, about Wiesbaden.

_Church and Brodribb,
Geographical Notes to The Germany of Tacitus._

See, also, MOGONTIACUM.

MAUREGATO, King of Leon and the Asturias, or Oviedo, A. D. 783-788.

----------MAURETANIA: Start--------

MAURETANIA. MAURETANIANS. MOORS.

See NUMIDIANS.

MAURETANIA:
Under the Romans.

See AFRICA: THE ROMAN PROVINCE.

MAURETANIA: A. D. 374-398.-Revolts of Firmus and Gildo.

See ROME: A. D. 396-398.

MAURETANIA:
Conquest by the Vandals. See VANDALS: A. D. 429-439.

MAURETANIA:
Mahometan Conquest.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 647-709.

MAURETANIA:
Mediæval and Modern History.

See MAROCCO;
also, BARBARY STATES.

----------MAURETANIA: End--------

MAURICE,
Roman Emperor (Eastern), A. D. 582-602.

Maurice, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau,
Stadtholder of the United Provinces (Netherlands), 1587-1625.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585, to 1621-1633.

Maurice of Saxony, The dishonorable exploits of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1546-1552.

MAURIENNE, Counts of.

The earliest title of the princes of the House of Savoy.

See SAVOY: 11-15TH CENTURIES.

MAURITANIANS.

See MAURETANIA.

MAURITIUS, or the Isle of France, English acquisition of the (1810).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE);
also, INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.

MAURITIUS RIVER.

The name given by the Dutch to the Hudson River.

MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS.

See CARIANS.

MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN.

See CASTLE ST. ANGELO.

MAVROVALLACHIA.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 12TH CENTURY.

MAXEN, Capitulation of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1759 (JULY-NOVEMBER).

MAXIMA CÆSARIENSIS.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 323-337.

MAXIMIAN, Roman Emperor, A. D. 286-305.

{2119}

MAXIMILIAN, Emperor of Mexico.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1861-1867.

Maximilian I., Archduke of Austria, King of the Romans,
A. D. 1486-1493;
Germanic Emperor, 1493-1519.

Maximilian II., Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary
and Bohemia, and Germanic Emperor, 1564-1576.

MAXIMIN, Roman Emperor, A. D. 235-238.

MAXIMUS, Revolt of.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 383-388.

MAXYANS, The.

See LIBYANS.

MAY, Cape MEY, Cape: The Name.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1610-1614.

MAY LAWS, The German.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1873-1887.

MAY LAWS, The Russian, of 1882.

See JEWS: 19TH CENTURY.

MAYAS, The, and their early civilization.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MAYAS.

MAYENCE.

See MENTZ.

MAYFLOWER, The Voyage of the.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1620.

MAYNOOTH, Siege of.

The castle of Maynooth, held by the Irish in the rebellion of
1535, was besieged by the English, stormed and taken, March 23
of that year, and twenty-six of its defenders hanged. The
rebellion soon collapsed.

_J. A. Fronde,
History of England,
chapter 8._

MAYNOOTH GRANT, The.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1844.

MAYO, Lord, The Indian administration and the assassination of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1862-1876.

MAYOR OF THE PALACE.

"The Mayor of the Palace is met with in all the Frankish
kingdoms. … The mayors were at first merely the first
superintendents, the first administrators of the interior of
the palace of the king; the chiefs whom he put at the head of
his companions, of his leudes, still united around him. It was
their duty to maintain order among the king's men, to
administer justice, to look to all the affairs, to all the
wants, of that great domestic society. They were the men of
the king with the leudes; this was their first character,
their first state. Now for the second. After having exercised
the power of the king over his leudes, his mayors of the
palace usurped it to their own profit. The leudes, by grants
of public charges and fiefs, were not long before they became
great proprietors. This new situation was superior to that of
companions of the king; they detached themselves from him, and
united in order to defend their common interests. According as
their fortune dictated, the mayors of the palace sometimes
resisted them, more often united with them, and, at first
servants of the king, they at last became the chiefs of an
aristocracy, against whom royalty could do nothing. These are
the two principal phases of this institution: it gained more
extension and fixedness in Austrasia, in the family of the
Pepins, who possessed it almost a century and a half, than
anywhere else."

_F. Guizot,
History of Civilization,
volume 2 (France, volume 1), lecture 19._

ALSO IN:
_W. C. Perry,
The Franks,
chapter 5._

See, also,
FRANKS: A. D. 511-752.

MAYORUNA, BARBUDO, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.

MAYPO, Battle of (1818).

See CHILE: A. D. 1810-1818.

MAZACA.

"Mazaca [the capital city of ancient Cappadocia] was situated
at the base of the great volcanic mountain Argaeus (Argish),
about 13,000 feet high. … The Roman emperor Tiberius changed
the name of Mazaca to Caesareia, and it is now Kaisariyeh on
the Kara Su, a small stream which flows into the Halys (Kizil
Ermak)."

_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 5, chapter 22._

MAZARIN, Ministry of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1642-1643, to 1659-1661.

MAZARINE BIBLE, The.

See PRINTING: A. D. 1430-1456.

MAZARQUIVER, Siege of (1563).

See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1563-1565.

MAZES.

See LABYRINTHS.

MAZOR.

See EGYPT: ITS NAMES.

MAZZINI, Joseph, and the revolutionary movements in Italy.

See ITALY: A. D. 1831-1848.

MEADE, General George G.:
Command of the Army of the Potomac.
Battle of Gettysburg, and after.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (JUNE-JULY: PENNSYLVANIA);
and (JULY-NOVEMBER: VIRGINIA).

MEAL-TUB PLOT, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1679 (JUNE).

MEANEE, Battle of (1843).

See SCINDE.

MEAUX, Siege of.

The city of Meaux, on the Marne, in France, was vigorously
besieged for seven months by Henry V. of England, but
surrendered on the 10th of May, 1422.

_Monstrelet,
Chronicles,
book 1, chapters 249-259._

----------MECCA: Start--------

MECCA:
Rise of Mahometanism.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: 609-632.

MECCA: A. D. 692.
Siege by the Omeyyads.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-750.

MECCA: A. D. 929.
Stormed and Pillaged by the Carmathians.

See CARMATHIANS.

----------MECCA: End--------

MECHANICSVILLE, Engagements at.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY: VIRGINIA) THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN;
and (JUNE-JULY: VIRGINIA).

----------MECHLIN: Start--------

MECHLIN: A. D. 1572.
Pillage and massacre by Alva's troops.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1572-1573.

MECHLIN: A. D. 1585.
Surrender to the Spaniards.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585.

----------MECHLIN: End--------

MECKLENBURG: The Duchy bestowed on Wallenstein (1628).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1627-1629.

MECKLENBURG DECLARATION, The.

See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775 (MAY).

MEDAIN.

Medain, "the twin city," combined in one, under this Arabic
name, the two contiguous Persian capitals, Seleucia and
Ctesiphon. The name Medain signifies "cities," and "it is said
to have comprised a cluster of seven towns, but it is
ordinarily taken to designate the twin cities of Seleucia and
Ctesiphon."

_Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapters 10 and 17._

{2120}

----------MEDIA: Start--------

MEDIA AND THE MEDES.

The country of the Medes, in its original extent, coincided
very nearly with the northwestern part of modern Persia,
between Farsistan and the Elburz mountains. "The boundaries of
Media are given somewhat differently by different writers, and
no doubt they actually varied at different periods; but the
variations were not great, and the natural limits, on three
sides at any rate, may be laid down with tolerable precision.
Towards the north the boundary was at first the mountain chain
closing in on that side the Urumiyeh basin, after which it seems
to have been held that the true limit was the Araxes, to its
entrance on the low country, and then the mountain chain west
and south of the Caspian. Westward, the line of demarcation
may be best regarded as, towards the south, running along the
centre of the Zagros region; and, above this, as formed by
that continuation of the Zagros chain which separates the
Urumiyeh from the Van basin. Eastward, the boundary was marked
by the spur from the Elburz, across which lay the pass known
as the Pylæ Caspiæ, and below this by the great salt desert,
whose western limit is nearly in the same longitude. Towards
the south there was no marked line or natural boundary. … We
may place the southern limit with much probability about the
line of the thirty-second parallel, which is nearly the
present boundary between Irak and Fars."

_G. Rawlinson,
Five great Monarchies: Media,
chapter 1._

"The nation of the Medes belongs to the group of the Arian
tribes, which occupied the table-land of Iran. This has been
already proved by the statement of Herodotus that in ancient
times the Medians were called Areans by all men, by the
religion of the Medes, and by all the Median words and names
that have come down to us. According to Herodotus the nation
consisted of six tribes: the Arizanti, Busae, Struchates,
Budii, Paraetaceni, and Magi. … The Magians we have already
found to be a hereditary order of Priests."

_M. Duncker,
History of Antiquity,
book 8, chapter 1._

The Medes, who seem to have been long without any centralizing
authority among them, became, at last, united under a monarchy
which grew in power, until, in the later part of the seventh
century B. C., it combined with Babylonia against the decaying
Assyrian kingdom. Nineveh was destroyed by the confederates,
and the dominions of Assyria were divided between them. The
Median empire which then rose, by the side of the Babylonian,
endured little more than half a century. It was the first of
the conquests of Cyrus (see PERSIA: B. C. 549-521), or Kyros,
the founder of the Persian empire (B. C. 549).

_A. H. Sayce,
Ancient Empires of the East,
appendix 5._

ALSO IN:
_F. Lenormant and E. Chevallier,
Manual of the Ancient History of the East,
book 5, chapters 1-4._

MEDIA:
The ancient religion.

See ZOROASTRIANS.

----------MEDIA: End----------

MEDIA ATROPATENE.

See ATROPATENE.

MEDIÆVAL, Belonging to the.

See MIDDLE AGES.

----------MEDICAL SCIENCE: Start--------

MEDICAL SCIENCE:
Chronology of Development.

Renouard, in his "History of Medicine," arranges the
chronology of the development of medical knowledge in three
grand divisions or Ages, subdivided into eight periods. "The
First Age commences with the infancy of society, as far back
as historic tradition carries us, and terminates toward the
end of the second century of the Christian era, at the death
of Galen, during the reign of Septimus Severus. This lapse of
time constitutes, in Medicine, the Foundation Age. The germ of
the Healing Art, concealed, at first, in the instincts of men,
is gradually developed; the basis of the science is laid, and
great principles are discussed. … The Second Age, which may
be called the Age of Transition, offers very little material
to the history of Medicine. We see no longer the conflicts and
discussions between partisans of different doctrines; the
medical sects are confounded. The art remains stationary, or
imperceptibly retrogrades. I can not better depict this epoch
than by comparing it to the life of an insect in the nympha
state; though no exterior change appears, an admirable
metamorphosis is going on, imperceptibly, within. The eye of
man only perceives the wonder after it has been finished. Thus
from the 15th century, which is the beginning of the third and
last Age of Medicine, or the Age of Renovation, Europe offers
us a spectacle of which the most glorious eras of the
republics of Greece and Rome only can give us an idea. It
would seem as if a new life was infused into the veins of the
inhabitants of this part of the world; the sciences, fine
arts, industry, religion, social institutions, all are
changed. A multitude of schools are open for teaching
Medicine. Establishments which had no models among the
ancients, are created for the purpose of extending to the
poorer classes the benefits of the Healing Art. The ingenious
activity of modern Christians explores and is sufficient for
everything. These three grand chronological divisions do not
suffice to classify, in our minds, the principal phases of the
history of Medicine; consequently, I have subdivided each age
into a smaller number of sections, easy to be retained, and
which I have named Periods. The first Age embraces four
periods, the second and third ages, each, two. … The first
period, which we name Primitive Period, or that of instinct,
ends with the ruin of Troy, about twelve centuries before the
Christian era. The second, called the Mystic or Sacred Period,
extends from the dissolution of the 'Pythagorean Society' to
about the year 500 A. C. The third period, which ends at the
foundation of the Alexandrian Library, A. C., 320, we name the
Philosophic Period. The fourth, which we designate the
Anatomic, extends to the end of the first age, i. e., to the
year 200 of the Christian era. The fifth is called the Greek
Period; it ends at the destruction of the Alexandrian Library,
A. D. 640. The sixth receives the surname of Arabic, and
closes with the 14th century. The seventh period, which begins
the third age, comprises the 15th and 16th centuries; it is
distinguished as the Erudite. Finally, the eighth, or last
period, embraces the 17th and 18th centuries [beyond which the
writer did not carry his history]. I call it the Reform
Period."

_P. V. Renouard,
History of Medicine,
introduction._

MEDICAL SCIENCE:
Egyptian.