Chapter IV: Of Provincial and Communal Institutions (2)

"The pious legend according to which Peter the Hermit is
supposed to have been miraculously chosen by God Himself to
call Christendom to arms for the purpose of freeing the Holy
Sepulchre has long since been proved unhistorical by
scientific investigators. That account of the matter may have
given suitable expression to the religious enthusiasm which
the crusades called forth in those circles that were
especially strongly influenced by the church; but it is
entirely without any actual foundation in fact, nay, more; the
religious element altogether did not play nearly so important
a part in the origin of the crusades as it would seem to have
done to judge by the later character of the great movement.
For if in those days church influences and the religious
impulses on which they were based made a mighty impression and
in many ways produced an almost overwhelming effect;
nevertheless the reason for all this lay essentially herein
that the whole age, more than any other, was in a condition,
through crying agricultural, social and political needs, to
give itself up without reserve to the influence of similar
impelling forces, and that just for this reason it took up
with such enthusiasm the impulse furnished by the church. In
its most general form the thought which lies at the base of
the crusades springs from the idea of the calling of
Christendom to have and to hold the rule of the world. The
desire to practically carry out this idea was especially
active whenever the Christian ideal of world-rule,
incorporated as it was in a double form in the empire and in
the papacy, seemed near to realization; then it was that its
inherent magic unfolded most irresistibly its animating and at
the same time ensnaring power. Thus did Otto II, already, plan
a great undertaking for the protection of Christendom against
the Arabs. Thus did the fantastic mind of his immature son
busy itself with plans for a great crusade. Neither one nor
the other carried out his intention. But, little more than two
generations later, the commanding position which the empire
had at that time held, passed into the holding of the
hierarchical papacy. The creator of this hierarchical papacy,
who was beyond a doubt a reformer of genius, but revolutionary
in his means and hostile to the state as regarded his final
ends, was far from contenting himself with the spiritual power
which belongs uncontestedly to the church, but strove for an
actual, secular rule of the world. He thought to bring into
his own hands the complete political guidance of Christendom
as well as the command over its war-forces. … Plans for
widening his political and ecclesiastical sphere of power
formed the pith of Gregory VIIth's crusading plans. … Already
the victorious course had come to a stand-still in which the
Arabs up to the beginning of the eleventh century had
threatened to flood southwestern Europe. It was to rid
themselves of their troublesome enemies and their deeds of
violence, but not, however for the sake of the Faith, that
those who were threatened had determined to help themselves.
This led to the rapid rise of the naval power of Pisa and
Genoa, which soon won brilliant victories on the north coast
of Africa, and at the same time the brave Normans struggled
with growing success against the Arabs for the possession of
fair Sicily. There and not in Rome was the thought of a holy
war against the power of the Crescent first taken hold of; it
sprang from the knightly zeal for action and the political
genius of Robert Guiscard. … About the same time, moreover,
the Christians of the Pyrenean peninsula had energetically
roused themselves to a new attack against the Mohammedans.
Along the whole line therefore, in southwestern Europe, the
Christian arms were already victoriously pressing forward
against the followers of the prophet when the call from Rome
to the crusades first sounded out. Regarded as a whole,
therefore, the crusades cannot simply be looked upon as the
exclusive work of the church. The movement was already in full
progress and had, independently of the church, most successful
results to show, when that church's head undertook through a
skillful act to concentrate the separate movements and to
unite and organize them under his own guidance. This policy
was cleverly carried out by Urban. The church succeeded
effectually in bringing under her own undivided direction the
undertakings which different peoples of the Occident had
separately begun against their Mohammedan adversaries. For on
the one hand the empire, to which even then the opinion of the
world ascribed the first right of leadership in such a
struggle, lay prostrate in abject weakness and degradation; it
was incapable of fulfilling its calling. The whole age on the
other hand was so thoroughly roused to its depths and so
exhausted through the mighty spiritual struggles by which
church-life especially was shaken to its very foundation that
it submitted without opposition and even willingly to a
churchly right of guidance emphatically asserted; the more so
as this new guide promised to show the individual the way to
inward rest and peace of soul. The deeply sunken church had
been reformed by Cluny ideas; in place of the worldly doings
and sensual pleasures which had formerly engrossed her
servants and dignitaries, stern asceticism and saintly
enthusiasm ruled the day. Although it was among the clergy of
the eleventh century that the effect of this was primarily to
be seen, yet it was not without influence on the great body of
laymen.
{3740}
Not seldom do princes and nobles emulate each other in strict
ecclesiasticism, in monkish practices and pilgrimages. An age
without a parallel began of founding monasteries and churches.
Was it to be wondered at that the people also, otherwise bound
fast by the barren monotony of toilsome existence, turned
their thoughts often in the same direction? The more frequent
coming forward of popular saints and popular preachers, the
overwhelmingly rapid increase in the worship of relics, which
assumed a hitherto unheard-of significance for the catholic
system of religious observance, and the astonishing renewal of
life which came about in the matter of pilgrimages and sacred
undertakings customary though they had been of old: all these
show clearly how the enthusiastic frame of mind which had been
aroused by Cluny won for itself wider and wider circles even
beyond the pale of the clergy. And in an age like this, so
deeply excited about church matters, fell now the
world-rousing struggle between the papacy and the empire. It
appeared to annihilate the foundations on which church and
state had hitherto been reared. With bitterness men saw those
powers in conflict with each other on whose concord they had
believed the peace and happiness of the world to depend. …
Most impressively of all, as far as the uneducated masses were
concerned, was the wretchedness of the age betokened by the
outward evils and ravagings which the termination of the reign
of Henry IV brought about: by the vanishing of discipline and
order, the utter prostration of law, the loosing even of the
holy ties of family. The vassal broke faith with the feudal
lord, the subject warred with the authorities, the son rose up
against the father. Heavily did the chastening hand of God
rest upon land and people. Everywhere did men suffer from
feuds, robbery and violence; everywhere did the common man
find himself in a position which he felt that he could no
longer endure. In France the rural population was utterly
prostrated under the galling oppressions of the nobles who
were their landlords. In Germany, to add to similar evils,
came the loosing of all bonds of order through the civil war
which had sprung from the conflict concerning the investiture.
… In short, wherever in the Occident one turns his gaze,
everywhere did dissatisfaction and an impulse towards
improvement, or at least towards change, rule the day;
everywhere an eager desire with one stroke to break free from
the uncomfortable, indeed in many cases unbearable, present!
The dissatisfied and revolutionary mood which possessed high
and low in almost all parts of occidental Christendom is one
of the essential reasons why the call to the crusade at once
set hundreds of thousands in motion and called forth a very
wandering of the nations. … Hierarchical ideas and asceticism
ruled the spirit of the age; in mind and in mood they had
prepared Europe for the crusades. Most emphatically was this
made evident by the fact that the crusaders marched out under
the banner of the hierarchical papacy—that same red cross
which Erlembald Cotta, the 'knight of the church' had borne on
his white standard during the religious civil war in Lombardy,
and which in 1066 had been bestowed by the pope on the
conqueror of England. But on the other hand the political,
social and agricultural needs, which were not to be put off
and which kept calling for speedy change, were no less
effective agents in the same direction. Not religious
enthusiasm alone was it that ever anew, at the end of the
eleventh century, impelled hundreds of thousands towards the
Orient; how many would have staid at home quietly if they had
had enough to eat and had otherwise rejoiced in an existence
fit for a human being. But for years one bad harvest had
succeeded another; almost everywhere there was want almost
bordering on famine; to eke out their scanty existence
countless of those of the lower classes had had to squander
their possessions. They stood there now utterly without means;
they were forced to emigrate if they would not starve at home.
From all such oppressions, however, he was released who obeyed
the call to the crusade. Brilliant gains seemed assured to him
so soon as he allowed the red cross to be affixed to his
garment. The serf became free, the debtor shook off his
creditor or at any rate needed to pay him no interest. The
monk escaped from the strict discipline of the monastery, he
who had been under the ban was received again into the
communion of the church. What wonder then if countless numbers
hastened to join the adventurous expedition to the East which
promised them such blessings; and to the outward advantages
that allured the crusaders, to the expectation of the toilless
acquisition of land and subjects, of money and possessions,
must be added still the rich spiritual blessings and
ecclesiastical rewards which were solemnly assured to the
warriors of Christ. … Human nature at that time would have had
to be actually raised out of itself, to have become to a
certain extent untrue to itself if, in contrast to the misery
at home, the alluring prospects which began to show themselves
in the unknown distance had not worked an irresistible charm
on the great masses of the people. Nor did the church have any
scruples in putting in motion exactly these incentives to
action; she declared that the prevailing misery arose from the
thickness of the population in an impoverished land; she
unchained the popular greed by representing what riches would
be captured from the infidels, and even roused the sensual
passions by the seductive praise of Greek female beauty. That
such language should fairly carry away the great masses may
easily be imagined. For we may surely not regard the people as
of better moral fibre, and therefore more susceptible to ideal
motives, than the princes and commanders who led the crusading
armies. Of these, however, only the hot-blooded nobles of
southern France can primarily pass for representatives of that
churchly enthusiasm with which, according to the tradition
well-tinged with legend, the crusaders as a whole are said to
have been seized. And it is well known that their churchly
narrow-mindedness brought the people of southern France, under
Raymond of Toulouse, soon enough into direct opposition to the
other participants in the first crusade. For the majority of
the princes who had taken the cross were by no means willing
to work for the sole advantage of the church, but wished to
further their own worldly interests at least as much as they
did those of the pope. Indeed the Norman princes whose race
had been the first to take up the idea of a holy war against
the infidels had joined the crusade without religious
enthusiasm, after sober consideration and entirely following
out their own selfish, world]y plans. And it was exactly into
their hands that the leadership of the great undertaking
primarily came: the more completely therefore did the worldly,
political and dynastic points of view weigh down the churchly
intentions of the pious fanatics who, under the influence of
asceticism, wished only to serve the hierarchy."

_Hans Prutz,
Kulturgeschichte der Kreuzzüge,
(translated from the German)
pages 12-17._

See, also, CRUSADES, page 626.

{3741}

CUMBERLAND ROAD, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1806-1812 (page 3335).

CURIA REGIS.

See LAW (page 1957).

CY PRES DOCTRINE.

See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1601 (page 1991).

CYRUS, King, and the Jews.

See JEWS: B. C. 604-536, and 537 (pages 1908-1910).

D.

D'ALBUQUERQUE, Afonso,
and the domination of the Portuguese in the East.

See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.

DARNLEY, Lord, The murder of.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1561-1568 (page 2857).

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE, The.

"Dartmouth College … was originally a charity school for the
instruction of Indians in the Christian religion, founded by
the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, D. D., about the year 1754, at
Lebanon, in Connecticut. Its success led Dr. Wheelock to
solicit private subscriptions in England, for the purpose of
enlarging it, and of extending its benefits to English
colonists. Funds having been obtained for this purpose from
various contributors, among whom the Earl of Dartmouth,
Secretary for the Colonies, was a large donor, Dr. Wheelock
constituted that nobleman and other persons trustees, with
authority to fix the site of the college. The place selected
was on the Connecticut River, at what is now the town of
Hanover, in New Hampshire, where large donations of land were
made by the neighboring proprietors. A charter for the college
was obtained from the crown, in 1769, creating it a perpetual
corporation. The charter recognized Dr. Wheelock as founder,
appointed him to be the president, and empowered him to name
his successor, subject to the approval of the trustees; to
whom was also imparted the power of filling vacancies in their
own body, and of making laws and ordinances for the government
of the college, not repugnant to the laws of Great Britain or
of the province, and not excluding any person on account of
his religious belief. Under this charter, Dartmouth College
had always existed, unquestioned and undisturbed in its rights
as a corporation, down to the Revolution, and subsequently
until the year 1815. Whether from political or personal
motives springing up outside of the board of trustees of that
period, or from some collisions arising within the body
itself, it appears that … legislative interference with the
chartered rights of this college was threatened. … In the
following year (1816), the difficulties, which had become
mixed with political interests, culminated in a direct
interference by the Legislature. In that year an act was
passed, changing the corporate name from 'The Trustees of
Dartmouth College' to 'The Trustees of Dartmouth University;'
enlarging the number of trustees, vesting the appointment of
some of them in the political bodies of the State, and
otherwise modifying the ancient rights of the corporation as
they existed under its charter derived from the crown of
England. A majority of the existing trustees refused to accept
or to be bound by this act, and brought an action of trover in
the Supreme Court of the State, in the name of the old
corporation, against a gentleman, Mr. W. H. Woodward, who was
in possession of the college seal and other effects, and who
claimed to hold them as one of the officers of the
newly-created 'university.' The argument in this case was made
in the State court, for the college, by Mr. Mason and Mr.
Jeremiah Smith, assisted by Mr. Webster. The decision was
against the claim of the college. It was then determined to
remove the cause, by writ of error, to the Supreme Court of
the United States, under the provisions of the Federal
Constitution and laws creating in that tribunal an appellate
jurisdiction in cases which, although originating in a State
court, involved the construction and operation of the Federal
Constitution. This was supposed to be such a case, because it
was claimed by the college that the act of the Legislature,
modifying its charter, impaired the obligation of a contract;
an exercise of power which the Constitution of the United
States prohibits to the Legislature of a State. As soon as it
was known in New Hampshire that this very interesting cause
was to come before the Supreme Court of the United States, the
friends of the college, including their other counsel in the
State court, unanimously desired to have it committed to the
hands of Mr. Webster. He consented to take charge of it in the
autumn of 1817; but the cause was not argued at Washington
until February, 1818. … Before the case of Dartmouth College
vs. Woodward occurred, there had been no judicial decisions
respecting the meaning and scope of the restraint in regard to
contracts, excepting that it had more than once been
determined by the Supreme Court of the United States that a
grant of lands made by a State is a contract within the
protection of this provision, and is, therefore, irrevocable.
These decisions, however, could go but little way toward the
solution of the questions involved in the case of the college.
… Was the State of New Hampshire—a sovereign in all respects
after the Revolution, and remaining one after the Federal
Constitution, excepting in those respects in which it had
subjected its sovereignty to the restraints of that
instrument—bound by the contracts of the English crown? Is the
grant of a charter of incorporation a contract between the
sovereign power and those on whom the charter is bestowed? If
an act of incorporation is a contract, is it so in any case
but that of a private corporation? Was this college, which was
an institution of learning, established for the promotion of
education, a private corporation, or was it one of those
instruments of government which are at all times under the
control and subject to the direction of the legislative power?
All these questions were involved in the inquiry whether the
legislative power of the State had been so restrained by the
Constitution of the United States that it could not alter the
charter of this institution, against the will of the trustees,
without impairing the obligation of a contract. …
{3742}
On the conclusion of the argument, the Chief Justice intimated
that a decision was not to be expected until the next term. It
was made in February, 1819, fully confirming the grounds on
which Mr. Webster had placed the cause. From this decision,
the principle in our constitutional jurisprudence, which
regards a charter of a private corporation as a contract, and
places it under the protection of the Constitution of the
United States, takes its date."

_G. T. Curtis,
Life of Daniel Webster,
volume 1, chapter 8._

See, also, LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1819 (page 1976).

DAVY, Sir Humphrey, and the discovery of the electric arc light.

See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY: A. D. 1810-1890 (page 772).

DENMARK: Libraries.

See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).

DENMARK: Schools.

See EDUCATION (page 710).

DESCARTES, and modern physiological Science.

See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17TH CENTURY (page 2134).

DIPHTHERIA, Appearance of.

See PLAGUE: 18TH CENTURY (page 2543).

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.

"This body, often called also Christians, was one of the
results of the great revival movement which began in Tennessee
and Kentucky in the early part of the present century. Rev.
Barton W. Stone, a Presbyterian minister who was prominent in
the revival movement, withdrew from the Presbyterian Church,
and in 1804 organized a church with no other creed than the
Bible and with no name but that of Christian. One of his
objects was to find a basis for the union of all Christian
believers. A little later Thomas and Alexander Campbell,
father and son, who came from Ireland, where the former had
been a Presbyterian minister, organized union societies in
Pennsylvania. Changing their views as to baptism, they joined
the Redstone Association of Baptists. Shortly after, when
Alexander Campbell was charged with not being in harmony with
the creed, he followed the Burch Run Church, of which he was
pastor, into the Mahoning Baptist Association, which, leavened
with his teachings, soon ceased to be known as a Baptist
association. In 1827, after some correspondence with Rev. B.
W. Stone and his followers of the Christian Connection, there
was a union with a large number of congregations in Ohio,
Kentucky, and Tennessee, and the organization variously known
as 'Disciples of Christ' and 'Christians' [also, popularly
designated 'Campbellites'] is the result."

_H. K. Carroll,
Religious Forces of the United States,
chapter 18._

DUNKARDS, The.

"The Dunkards, or German Baptists, or Brethren, are of German
origin, and trace their beginning back to Alexander Mack, of
Schwartzenau, Germany. Early in the 18th century Mack and
several others formed a habit of meeting together for the
study of the New Testament. They were convinced that its
doctrines and principles of church order were not being
faithfully followed, either by the Lutheran or the Reformed
Church. They therefore resolved to form a society of their
own. Alexander Mack was chosen as their pastor. Persecution
soon arose, and they were scattered. In 1719 most of them got
together and came to the United States, settling in
Pennsylvania, where their first church was organized about
1723."

_H. K. Carroll,
Religious Forces of the United States,
chapter 19._

DUTCH, Commerce of the.

See (In this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL, and MODERN.

DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINES, The invention of.

See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1831-1872 (page 774).

E.

EBENEZER AND AMANA COMMUNITIES.

See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: 1843-1874 (page 2945).

ECCLESIASTICAL LAW.

See LAW, ECCLESIASTICAL (page 1986).

EDISON, Electrical Inventions of.

See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1841-1880, and 1876-1892 (pages 775-776).

EDMUNDS ACT, The.

See UTAH: A. D. 1882-1893 (page 3591).

EDUCATION.

See (in addition to pages 673-748),
VERMONT UNIVERSITY (page 3619),
VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY (page 3639),
WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY (page 3655);
and, (in this Supplement)
BOWDOIN COLLEGE, BROWN UNIVERSITY,
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, HAMILTON COLLEGE,
MINNESOTA UNIVERSITY, OBERLIN COLLEGE,
OHIO UNIVERSITY, PRINCETON COLLEGE,
RUTGERS COLLEGE, TULANE UNIVERSITY, UNION COLLEGE.

EGIBI AND COMPANY, The House of.

See MONEY AND BANKING:
ANCIENT EGYPT AND BABYLONIA (page 2199).

EGYPT, ANCIENT: Chronology.

Modern reckoning of Egyptian Chronology is by two modes: "(1)
that by 'dead reckoning,' or adding the dynasties up one on
another: (2) by certain fixed astronomical data, into the
interpretation and calculation of which various uncertainties
may enter. The more apart these modes can be kept the better,
as then they serve to check each other. The fundamental fact
on which all of our astronomically fixed points depend is the
imperfection of the Egyptian calendar. Using a year of 365
days, it followed that the nominal beginning of each year was
a quarter of a day too soon: just as if we were to neglect the
29th of February in leap years, and go on always from 28th
February direct to 1st March. Thus every four years a day was
slipped, and the nominal months of the year were begun a day
too soon. In 4 x 7 = 28 they began, then, a week too soon. In
4 x 30 = 120 years they began & month too soon; and after
twelve months and five days thus slipped, or in 1,460 years,
they began a year too soon, and so had rotated the nominal
months through all the seasons. … This loss of the day in four
years was … soon known to the Egyptians, and used by them as a
mode of constructing a great cycle, which in Ptolemaic times
became very prominent, and entered into all their fanciful
adjustments of history and myths.
{3743}
Some mode of noting the absolute months, as related to the
seasonal periods, became a necessity; and, of course, the
place of the sun among the stars most truly shows the exact
length of the year. But how to observe both sun and stars,
when without any mode of time-dividing,—such as clepsydra or
clock,—was an essential difficulty. This was got over by
noting on what day a particular star could be first seen, at
its emerging from the glow of the sunlight. In actual practice
they observed Sirius (or Sothis), the dog-star; and as the
stars all rise and set earlier and earlier every night, they
observed what was the first night in the year on which Sirius
could just be seen emerging from the glow of sunlight at dawn,
and this was entitled the heliacal rising. Hence, from using
Sothis for this observation, the whole period during which the
months rotated in the seasons was called the Sothic period of
1,460 years. We have some definite statements as to this in
Roman times. Censorinus, writing in 239 A. D., states that the
Egyptian New Year's day, 1st of Thoth, fell on the 25th of
June; and a hundred years before, in 139 A. D., it fell on the
21st July, 'on which day Sirius regularly rises in Egypt.'
Hence the beginning of a Sothic period of 1,460 years, or the
New Year's day falling on the 21st of July at the heliacal
rising of Sirius, took place in 139 A. D.; likewise in 1322 B.
C., in 2784 B. C., and in 4242 B. C., or thereabouts. From
this it is plain, that, as the nominal months rotated round
all the seasons once In each of these cycles, therefore, if we
only know the day of the nominal month in which any seasonal
event happened,—such as the rising of Sirius, or the
inundation,—we can find on what part of the cycle of 1,460
years such a coincidence can have fallen. It is from data such
as this that Mahler has lately calculated, by the rising of
Sirius, and also the new moons, that Tahutmes III. reigned
from 20th March 1503 B. C., to 14th February 1449. … Merenptah
celebrated in the second year of his reign a festival of the
rising of Sirius on the 29th of the month Thoth. Mahler has
fixed the rising of Sirius, recorded on 28th Epiphi under
Tahutmes III., as in 1470 B. C. From 28th Epiphi to 29th Thoth
is 66 days, which the heliacal rising would change to in the
course of 4 x 66 years, or 264 years. This, from 1470, gives
1206 B. C. for the second year of Merenptah, or 1208 B. C. for
his accession, which is just the date we have reached by the
approximate summing of the reigns. Another datum on the other
side is the calendar of the Ebers papyrus, which records the
rising of Sirius on the 9th of Epiphi in the ninth year of
Amenhotep I. The reading of the king's name has been much
debated; but this is the last, and probable, conclusion. Now,
from the 28th to the 9th of Epiphi is 19 days, which Sirius
would change through in 76 years; so that the rising on the
9th of Epiphi took place in 1470+76 = 1546 B. C.; and the
first year of Amenhotep I. would be thus fixed in 1555 B. C.
The date before reached is 1562 B. C., equal to a difference
of less than 2 days in the time of Sirius' rising. This, at
least, shows that there is no great discrepancy. Thus there
are three data for the rising of Sirius, which agree within a
few years, though at considerably different epochs. … We …
have as a starting-point for our backward reckoning the
accession of the XVIIIth dynasty about 1587 B. C. From this we
can reckon in the dynastic data given by Manetho; following
this account rather than the totals of reigns, as he appears
to have omitted periods when dynasties were contemporary, as
in the 43 years for the XIth after the close of the Xth. Thus,
from the above starting-point of 1587 B. C., we reach the
following results, solely by using material which has been
discussed and settled in this history on its own merits alone,
and without any ulterior reckoning in total periods.

Dynasty Years. B. C.
I. 263 4777
II. 302 4514
III. 214 4212
IV. 277 3998
V. 218 3721
VI. 181 (T. P.) 3503
VII. 70 3322
VIII. 146 3252
IX. 100 3106
X. 185 3006
XI. 43 2821
XII. 213 (T. P.) 2778
XIII. 453 2565
XIV. 184 2112
XVI. 190 1928
XVII. 151 1738
XVIII. 260 1587
XIX. 1327

… In the present rough state of the astronomical data, and the
doubts as to the MS. authorities, we have reached quite as
close an equivalence as we may hope for; and at least there is
enough to show us that we may trust to the nearest century
with fair grounds of belief. These dates then, are what I have
provisionally adopted in this history; and though they are
stated to the nearest year, for the sake of intercomparison,
it must always be remembered that they only profess to go
within a century in the earlier parts of the scale."

_W. M. Flinders Petrie,
A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times
to the XVIth Dynasty,
chapter 11._

EGYPT.
Commerce.

See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE: THE EARLIEST RECORDS,
and EGYPT.

EGYPT.
Medical Science, Ancient.

See MEDICAL SCIENCE (page 2120).

EGYPT.
Money and banking.

See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2199).

EJECTMENT, Action of.

See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1499 (page 1966).

ELDON, Lord, and the rules of Equity.

See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1801-1827 (page 1993).

ELECTOR, The Great.

See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1700;
also page 309.

ELECTORS, Rise of the German College of.

See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1175-1272.

EMIGRES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1789 (JULY-AUGUST), (AUGUST-OCTOBER),
and 1781-1791 (pages 1264, 1265, and 1268).

EMPLOYER'S LIABILITY.

See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1837 (page 1977).

ENGLAND: Outline sketch of general history.

See EUROPE (page 1014, and after).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1622.
First printed newspaper publication.

See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1622-1702 (page 2593).

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ENGLAND: A. D. 1702.
First daily newspaper publication.

See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1622-1702 (page 2594).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1844.
The Bank Charter Act.

See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1844 (page 2216).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1881-1882.
The Irish Coercion Bill and Land Act.
Arrest of Irish leaders.
Alleged Kilmainham Treaty and release of Mr. Parnell and others.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1881-1882 (page 1797).

ENGLAND:
Commerce.

See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL, and MODERN.

ENGLAND:
Libraries.

See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2014).

ENGLAND:
Possessions in Africa.

See (in this Supplement) AFRICA.

ENGLAND, Bank of.

See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2209).

EQUITY.

See LAW, EQUITY (page 1988).

ERITREA, The Italian colony of.

See (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1890-1801.

ESSENES, The.

"Apart from the great high road of Jewish life, there lived in
Palestine in the time of Christ a religious community which,
though it grew up on Jewish soil, differed essentially in many
points from traditional Judaism, and which, though it
exercised no powerful influence upon the development of the
people, deserves our attention as a peculiar problem in the
history of religion. This community, the Essenes or Essaeans,
is generally, after the precedent of Josephus, placed beside
the Pharisees and Sadducees as the third Jewish sect. But it
scarcely needs the remark, that we have here to deal with a
phenomenon of an entirely different kind. While the Pharisees
and Sadducees were large political and religious parties, the
Essenes might far rather be compared to a monastic order.
There is indeed much that is enigmatical in them as to
particulars. Even their name is obscure. … The origin of the
Essenes is as obscure as their name. Josephus first mentions
them in the time of Jonathan the Maccabee, about 150 B. C.,
and speaks expressly of one Judas an Essene in the time of
Aristobulus I. (105-104 B. C.). According to this, the origin
of the order would have to be placed in the second century
before Christ. But it is questionable whether they proceeded
simply from Judaism, or whether foreign and especially
Hellenistic elements had not also an influence in their
organization. … Philo and Josephus agree in estimating the
number of the Essenes in their time at above 4,000. As far as
is known, they lived only in Palestine, at least there are no
certain traces of their occurrence out of Palestine. … For the
sake of living as a community, they had special houses of the
order in which they dwelt together. Their whole community was
most strictly organized as a single body. … The strongest tie
by which the members were united was absolute community of
goods. 'The community among them is wonderful [says Josephus],
one does not find that one possesses more than another. For it
is the law, that those who enter deliver up their property to
the order, so that there is nowhere to be seen, either the
humiliation of poverty or the superfluity of wealth, but on
the contrary one property for all as brethren, formed by the
collection of the possessions of individuals.' 'They neither
buy nor sell among each other; but while one gives to another
what he wants, he receives in return what is useful to
himself, and without anything in return they receive freely
whatever they want.' … 'There is but one purse for all, and
common expenses, common clothes and common food in common
meals. For community of dwelling, of life and of meals is
nowhere so firmly established and so developed as with them.
And this is intelligible. For what they receive daily as wages
for their labour, they do not keep for themselves, but put it
together, and thus make the profits of their work common for
those who desire to make use of it. And the sick are without
anxiety on account of their inability to earn, because the
common purse is in readiness for the care of them, and they
may with all certainty meet their expenses from abundant
stores.' … The daily labour of the Essenes was under strict
regulation. It began with prayer, after which the members were
dismissed to their work by the presidents. They reassembled
for purifying ablutions, which were followed by the common
meal. After this they again went to work, to assemble again
for their evening meal. The chief employment of members of the
order was agriculture. They likewise carried on, however,
crafts of every kind. On the other hand, trading was forbidden
as leading to covetousness, and also the making of weapons or
of any kind of utensils that might injure men. … The Essenes
are described by both Philo and Josephus as very connoisseurs
in morality. … Their life was abstemious, simple and
unpretending. 'They condemn sensual desires as sinful, and
esteem moderation and freedom from passion as of the nature of
virtue.' They only take food and drink till they have had
enough; abstaining from passionate excitement, they are 'just
dispensers of wrath.' At their meals they are 'contented with
the same dish day by day, loving sufficiency and rejecting
great expense as harmful to mind and body.' … There is not a
slave among them, but all are free, mutually working for each
other. All that they say is more certain than an oath. They
forbid swearing, because it is worse than perjury. … Before
every meal they bathe in cold water. They do the same after
performing the functions of nature. … They esteem it seemly to
wear white raiment at all times. … They entirely condemned
marriage. Josephus indeed knew of a branch of the Essenes who
permitted marriage. But these must at all events have formed a
small minority. … A chief peculiarity of the Essenes was their
common meals, which bore the character of sacrificial feasts.
The food was prepared by priests, with the observance probably
of certain rites of purification; for an Essene was not
permitted to partake of any other food than this. … In their
worship, as well as in that of other Jews, the Holy Scriptures
were read and explained; and Philo remarks, that they
specially delighted in allegorical interpretation. They were
extraordinarily strict in the celebration of the Sabbath. They
did not venture on that day to move a vessel from its place,
nor even to perform the functions of nature. In other respects
too they showed themselves to be Jews. Though they were
excluded from the temple they sent gifts of incense there. …
Concerning their doctrine of the soul and of its immortality,
Josephus expresses himself most fully.
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If we may trust his account, they taught that bodies are
perishable, but souls immortal, and that the latter dwelt
originally in the subtlest aether, but being debased by
sensual pleasures united themselves with bodies as with
prisons; but when they are freed from the fetters of sense
they will joyfully soar on high, as if delivered from long
bondage. To the good (souls) is appointed a life beyond the
ocean. … But to the bad (souls) is appointed a dark cold
region full of unceasing torment."

_E. Schürer,
A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ,
volume 2, pages 190-205._

EXEMPTION LAWS.

See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1836 (page 1977).

EXPLORATION, African and Arctic.

For a complete chronological record.

See (in this Supplement) AFRICA; and ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

F.

FAMILISTÈRE OF M. GODIN, The.

See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1859-1887 (page 2947).

FAURE, François Felix.
Election to the Presidency of the French Republic.

See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1895.

FEDERALIST SECESSION MOVEMENT.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1803-1804 (page 3329).

FEUDAL AIDS.

"In theory the duty of the noble vassal towards his lord was a
purely personal one and to commute it for a money payment was
a degradation of the whole feudal relation. The payment of
money, especially if it were a fixed and regular payment,
carried with it a certain ignoble idea against which, in the
form of state taxation, the feudal spirit rebelled to the
last. When the vassal agreed to pay something to his lord, he
called it, not a tax, but an 'aid' (auxilium), and made it
generally payable, not regularly, like the tax-bill of the
citizen, but only upon certain occasions—a present, as it
were, coming out of his good-will and not from compulsion; e.
g., whenever a fief was newly granted, when it changed its
lord, and sometimes when it changed its vassal, it was from
the beginning customary to acknowledge the investiture by a
small gift to the lord, primarily as a symbol of the grant;
then, as the institution grew and manners became more
luxurious, the gift increased in value and was thought of as
an actual price for the investiture, until finally, at the
close of our period, it suffered the fate of all similar
contributions and was changed into a definite money payment,
still retaining, however, its early name of 'relief.' … The
occasions for levying the aids were various but always, in
theory, of an exceptional sort. The journey of a lord to the
court of his suzerain, or to Rome, or to join a crusade, the
knighting of his eldest son, the marriage of his eldest
daughter and his ransom from imprisonment are among the most
frequent of the feudal 'aids.' The right of the lord to be
entertained and provisioned, together with all his following,
was one of the most burdensome and, at the same time, most
difficult to regulate. Its conversion into a money-tax was,
perhaps for this reason, earlier than that of many other of
the feudal contributions."

_E. Emerton,
Mediaeval Europe,
chapter 14._

FEUDAL SYSTEM: Origin.

"The 'benefice,' … emerges from the struggles of the eighth
century as a form of grant originated by the ruling house and
remaining at its disposal. It was a form of grant which was at
all times revocable and which would thus necessarily prompt
the grantee to avoid any act which could displease the
sovereign. It entailed the reversion of the benefice at the
death of the grantee as well as of the person granting. The
benefice … was now chiefly made use of by the Carolingians of
the 8th century to win the military aid of the nobles against
internal and external enemies and especially against the
Saracens. Army commanders and counts or other important
officials would receive wide stretches of ecclesiastical or
royal land. They would organize these into 'manors,' would
collect a large 'following,' and would call in free tenants to
do service in their armies in return for their protection.
Thus they themselves became the stays and props of the new
form of government. As the reorganization of the military
forces went on this process was repeated more and more often,
and as a matter of course the same vital principles which
these holders had carried through with regard to those under
them came to be applied to their own position as regarded
their military duties to the king: namely that they should
become vassals. This accordingly happened. The vassal system
and the benefice system blended together into a new form of
actual and personal union of the nobles with the crown. In
receiving a benefice they swore to the king the special oath
of fidelity of the 'following'; this fidelity on the other
hand seemed assured through the power of the king to revoke
the benefice. Quickly enough did this connection of the vassal
system and the benefice system, which is commonly called
vassalism, become so common that it began to extend downwards
also. It had already become usual for rich landholders no
longer, in the old Germanic manner, to provide for all their
vassals at their own court, but to provide sustenance for them
in various other ways—notably by granting them estates. Now,
after the royal model, it came to be the custom to grant
benefices and thus to found personal responsibilities. The
results of this development were extraordinary. If on the one
hand, in spite of all Charles the Great's measures to the
contrary, the old army organization based on the service of
all freemen fell into decay and the contingents from the land
holders began to constitute the great mass of the army: on the
other hand the bond of vassalism with its different variations
became of prime importance for the administration of the land.
No longer did the king by virtue of his royal ban or
jurisdiction issue his commands to all freemen in common. He
issued his commands to the nobles and they by virtue of their
feudal prerogatives commanded the vassals who were subject to
them. The evenly distributed mass of freemen subject to
military duty had vanished; a high-towering structure of those
bound in vassalage had taken its place. The military
organization had assumed its position under the banner of the
feudal state. The administration, too, was soon to be
undermined by the system of vassalage and to change its
structure from the very foundation."

_Lamprecht,
Deutsche Geschichte,
volume 2, pages 104-105._

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"The latest investigations of Brunner … have established the
proof that feudalism originated in consequence of the
introduction of cavalry service into the military system of
the Frankish kingdom and that it retained its original
character until well on towards the close of the Middle Ages.
The Franks like the Lombards learned the use of cavalry from
the Moors or Saracens. Charles Martel was led by his
experiences after the battle of Poictiers to the conclusion
that only with the help of mounted armies could these enemies
be opposed with lasting success. It was between 732 and 758
that the introduction of cavalry service into the Frankish
army took place; it had hitherto consisted mainly of infantry.
The attempt was first made, and with marked success, in
Aquitaine and Septimania; almost contemporaneously also among
the Lombards. In order to place the secular nobles in
condition to fit out larger masses of cavalry a forced loan
from the church was carried through by Charles Martel and his
sons, it being under the latter that the matter was first
placed upon a legal footing. The nobles received
ecclesiastical benefices from the crown and regranted them in
the way of sub-loans. The custom of having a 'following' and
the old existing relationships of a vassal to his lord
furnished a model for the responsibilities of those receiving
benefices at first and at second hand. The secular nobles
became thus at once vassals of the crown and lords (seigneurs)
of those to whom they themselves in turn made grants. The duty
of the vassals to do cavalry service was based on the
'commendation': their fief was not the condition of their
doing service but their reward for it. Hence the custom of
denominating the fief (Lehn) as a 'fee' (feudum)—a designation
which was first applied in southern France, and which in
Germany, occasionally in the eleventh and ever more frequently
in the twelfth century, is used side by side with the older
term 'benefice,' until in the course of the first half of the
13th century it completely displaces it. With the further
development of cavalry service that of the feudal system kept
regular pace. Already in the later Carolingian period Lorraine
and Burgundy followed southern France and Italy in becoming
feudalized states. To the east of the Rhine on the contrary
the most flourishing time of cavalry service and of the feudal
system falls in the time of the Hohenstaufens, having
undoubtedly been furthered by the crusades. Here even as late
as the middle of the twelfth century the horsemen preferred
dismounting and fighting with the sword because they could not
yet manage their steeds and the regular cavalry weapons, the
shield and the spear, like their western neighbors. But never
in Germany did feudalism make its way into daily life as far
as it did in France where the maxim held true: 'nulle terre
sans seigneur.' There never was here a lack of considerable
allodial possessions, although occasionally, out of respect
for the feudal theory, these were put down as 'fiefs of the
sun.' The principle, too, was firmly maintained that a fief
granted from one's own property was no true fief; for so
thoroughly was feudal law the law governing the realm that a
true fief could only be founded on the fief above it, in such
manner that the king was always the highest feudal lord. That
was the reason why a fief without homage, that is, without the
relationship of vassalage and the need of doing military
service for the state, could not be looked upon as a true
fief. The knight's fee only (feudum militare) was such, and
only a man of knightly character, who united a knightly manner
of living with knightly pedigree, was 'perfect in feudal
law,'—in possession, namely, of full feudal rights or of the
'Heerschild.' Whether or not he had been personally dubbed
knight made no difference; the fief of a man who was still a
squire was also a true fief. … The object of the feudal grant
could be anything which assured a regular
emolument,—especially land, tithes, rents and other sources of
income, tolls and jurisdictions, churches and monasteries;_
above all, offices of state. In course of time the earlier
distinction between the office and the fief which was meant to
go with the office ceased to be made. … The formal course of
procedure when granting was a combination, exactly on the old
plan, of the act of commendation, now called Hulde, which was
the basis of vassalage, and the act of conferring
(investiture) which established the real right of the man to
the fief. … The Hulde consisted in giving the hand (=the
performing of mannschaft, homagium, hominium, Hulde) often
combined with the giving of a kiss and the taking of an oath
(the swearing of fidelitas or Hulde) by which the man swore to
be 'true, loyal and willing' as regarded his lord. The custom
earlier connected with commendation of presenting a weapon had
lost its former significance and had become merged in the
ceremony of investiture: the weapon had become a symbol of
investiture. … These symbols of investiture were in part the
same as in territorial law: the glove, the hat, the cape, the
staff, the twig; occasionally probably also a ring, but quite
especially the sword or spear. As regarded the principalities
it had quite early become the custom to fasten a banner on the
end of the spear in token of the royal rights of supremacy
that were to be conferred. Thus the banner became the sole
symbol of investiture in the granting of secular
principalities and the latter themselves came to be called
'banner fiefs.' The installation of the ecclesiastical princes
by the king took place originally without any distinction
being made between the office and the appanage of the office.
It was done by conferring the pastoral staff (ferula, virga
pastoralis) of the former bishop or abbot; in the case of
bishops since the time of Henry III by handing the ring and
crosier. In the course of the struggle concerning the
ecclesiastical investitures both sides came to the conviction
that a distinction could be made between the appanaging of the
church with secular estates and jurisdictions on the one hand,
and the office itself and the immediate appurtenances of the
church—the so-called 'sacred objects' on the other. A union
was arrived at in the Concordat of Worms which provided that
for the granting of the former (the so-called Regalia) the
secular symbol of the sceptre might replace the purely
ecclesiastical symbols. As this custom was retained even after
the incorporation of the ecclesiastical principalities in the
feudalized state-system the ecclesiastical principalities, as
opposed to the secular banner-fiefs, were distinguished as
'sceptre-fiefs.'"

_Schröder,
Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (1889),
pages 381-388._

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"By the time at which we have arrived (the Hohenstaufen
Period) the knights themselves, 'ordo equestris major:' had
come to form a class so distinct and so exclusive that no
outsiders could enter it except in the course of three
generations or by special decree of the king. Only to those
whose fathers and grandfathers were of knightly origin could
fiefs now be granted; only such could engage in judicial
combat, in knightly sports and, above all, in the tournament
or joust. … Feudalism did much to awaken a moral sentiment:
fidelity, truth and sincerity were the suppositions upon which
the whole system rested, and a great solidarity of interests
came to exist between the lord and his vassals. The latter
might bring no public charges against their master in matters
affecting his life, limb or honor; on three grand occasions,
in case of captivity, the knighting of his son, the marriage
of his daughter, they were obliged to furnish him with
pecuniary aid. Knightly honor and knightly graces come in the
twelfth century to be a matter of fashion and custom; a new
and important element, too, the adoration of woman, is
introduced. A whole literature arises that has to do almost
exclusively with knightly prowess and with knightly love.
Altogether we see the dawn of a new social life."

_E. F. Henderson,
A History of Germany in the Middle Ages,
page 424-425._

See, also, FEUDALISM (page 1117);
and EUROPE (pages 1019-1020).

FIELD, Cyrus, and the ocean telegraph.

See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1854-1866 (page 776).

FINNISH POPULAR POETRY.

See KALEVALA (page 1935).

_John Martin Crawford,
Kalevala,
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5186
One of several versions._

FLEMINGS, Commerce of the.

See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.

FLORENTINE BANKERS AND MONEY CHANGERS.

See MONEY AND BANKING (pages 2205 and 2206).

FORMOSA.