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Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8
       The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation

Author: Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson

Release Date: November 17, 2003 [EBook #10103]

Language: English

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BINDING Vol. VIII

The binding of this volume is a facsimile of the original in the British
Museum, and is considered the most artistic mosaic binding design in
existence.

It was executed about 1710, by Antoine Michel Padeloup, Royal Binder of
both France and Portugal.

He presented it to Francoise Marie de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XIV and
Madame de Montespan, on the anniversary of her marriage to Philippe, Duke
of Orleans, who afterward became Regent of France.

During the Reign of Terror this volume found its way to England, where it
was sold at a handsome price. It was bequeathed to the British Museum by
Felix Slade, Esq.




THE GREAT EVENTS

BY

FAMOUS HISTORIANS

A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING
THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN
THE MASTER-WORDS OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS

NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL

ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE
MOST DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF
INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED
NARRATIVES, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES,
BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D. JOHN RUDD, LL.D.

_With a staff of specialists

VOLUME VIII

The National Alumni_

1905




CONTENTS

VOLUME VIII


_An Outline Narrative of the Great Events_ CHARLES F. HORNE

_Origin and Progress of Printing (A.D. 1438)_ HENRY GEORGE BOHN

_John Hunyady Repulses the Turks (A.D. 1440-1456)_ ARMINIUS VAMBERY

_Rebuilding of Rome by Nicholas V, the "Builder-pope_" _(A.D. 1447-1455)_
MRS. MARGARET OLIPHANT

_Mahomet II Takes Constantinople (A.D. 1453)_ _End of the Eastern Empire_
GEORGE FINLAY

_Wars of the Roses (A.D. 1455-1485)_ _Death of Richard III at Bosworth_
DAVID HUME

_Ivan the Great Unites Russia and Breaks the Tartar_ _Yoke (A.D.
1462-1505)_ ROBERT BELL

_Culmination of the Power of Burgundy_ _Treaty of Peronne (A.D. 1468)_
P.F. WILLERT

_Lorenzo de'Medici Rules in Florence_ _Zenith of Florentine Glory (A.D.
1469)_ OLIPHANT SMEATON

_Death of Charles the Bold (A.D. 1477) Louis XI Unites Burgundy with
the Crown of France_ PHILIPPE DE COMINES

_Inquisition Established in Spain (A.D.1480),_ WILLIAM H. RULE JAMES
BALMES

_Murder of the Princes in the Tower (A.D.1483)_ JAMES GAIRDNER

_Conquest of Granada_ (A.D.1490) WASHINGTON IRVING

_Columbus Discovers America_ (A.D.1492) CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS FERDINAND
COLUMBUS

_Conspiracy, Rebellion, and Execution of Perkin Warbeck_ (A.D.1492)
FRANCIS BACON

_Savonarola's Reforms and Death_ The French Invade Italy_ (A.D.1494)
PASQUALE VILLARI JEAN C. L. SISMONDI

_Discovery of the Mainland of North America by the Cabots_ (A.D.1497)
SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSO

_The Sea Route to India Vasco da Gama Sails around Africa_ (A.D.1498)
GASPAR CORREA

_Columbus Discovers South America (A.D.1498)_ CLEMENTS ROBERT MARKHAM

_Establishment of Swiss Independence (A.D.1499)_ HEINRICH ZSCHOKKE

_Amerigo Vespucci in America (A.D.1499)_ AMERIGO VESPUCCI

_Rise and Fall of the Borgias (A.D.1502)_ NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

_Painting of the Sistine Chapel (A.D.1508)_ _The Splendor of Renaissance
Art under Michelangelo_ CHARLES CLEMENT

_Balboa Discovers the Pacific (A.D.1513)_ MANUEL JOSE QUINTANA

_Universal Chronology (A.D.1438-1516)_ JOHN RUDD

ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME VIII

_Murder of the princes, sons of King Edward IV, in _the Tower of London
(page 194)1_ Painting by Otto Seitz.

_Facsimile of a page from Caxton's_ Recuyell of the Historyes of
Troye--_the first book printed in the English language_

_Louis XI at his devotions in the castle of Peronne while held a prisoner
by Charles the Bold_ Painting by Hermann Kaulbach.

_Pope Sixties V and the Grand Inquisitor_ Painting by Jean Paul Laurens.



AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE

TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF

THE GREAT EVENTS

(THE LATER RENAISSANCE: FROM GUTENBERG TO THE REFORMATION)

CHARLES F. HORNE

The Renaissance marks the separation of the mediaeval from the modern
world. The wide difference between the two epochs of Teutonic history
arises, we are apt somewhat glibly to say, from the fact that our
ancestors worshipped and were ruled by brute force, whereas we follow the
broad light of intellect. Perhaps both statements require modification;
yet in a general way they do suggest the change which by a thousand
different agencies has, in the course of the last four centuries, been
forced upon the world. Mediaeval Europe was a land not of equals, but of
lords and slaves. The powerful nobles regarded themselves as of wholly
different clay from the hapless peasants whom they trampled under foot,
serfs so ignorant, so brutalized by want, that they were often little
better than the beasts with which they herded. Gradually the tradesmen,
the middle classes, forced their way to practical equality with the
nobles. Then came the turn of the masses to do the same. The beginnings
of the merchants' movement we have already traced in the preceding
volumes; the end of the peasants' effort is perhaps even to-day scarce
yet accomplished.

In dealing with modern history, therefore, every writer is apt to begin
with a different date. Some go back as far as Petrarch, who reintroduced
the study of ancient art and learning; that is, they regard our world as
a direct continuation of the Roman, with the thousand years of the Middle
Ages gaping between like an earthquake gulf of barbarism, that was
bridged at last. Some take the invention of printing as a starting-point,
feeling that the chief element of our progress has been the gathering of
information by the poorer classes. Some, looking to political changes,
turn to the reign of Louis XI of France, noting him as the first modern
king, or to the downfall of Charles the Bold, the last great feudal
noble. Others name later starting-points such as the establishment of
modern art by Michelangelo and Raphael at Rome, the discovery of America,
with its opening of vast new lands for the pent-up population of narrow
Europe, or the Reformation, which has been called man's revolt against
superstition, the establishment of the independence of thought.

All of these epochs fall within the limits of the Renaissance, and all,
except that of Petrarch, within the later Renaissance which we are now
considering. The period is therefore worth careful study.

INTELLECTUAL SUPREMACY OF ITALY

Gutenberg's invention had no immediate effect upon his world.[1] Indeed,
so little enthusiasm did it arouse that while the inventor's plans were
probably evolved as early as 1438, it was not until 1454 or thereabouts
that the first completed book was issued from his press. His business
partner, Faust, sold his wares in wealthy Paris without explaining that
these were different from earlier hand-written books; and when their
cheapness, as well as their exact similarity, was discovered, the
merchant was suspected of having sold himself to the devil. Hence
probably originated the Faust legend. Superstition, it is evident, had
still an extended course to run.

It is worth noting that to sell his books Faust left Germany for Paris,
and that while printing-presses multiplied but slowly in the land of
their origin, the new art was instantly seized upon in Italy, was there
made widest use of and pushed to its perfection. In fact, through all the
Middle Ages the Romance or semi-Teutonic peoples of Italy, France, and
Spain were intellectually in advance of the more wholly Teutonic races of
the North. Many of their descendants believe half contemptuously that the
difference has not even yet been overcome.

Italy at this time held clearly the intellectual supremacy of the western
world, and Florence under the Medici, Cosmo and then Lorenzo, held the
supremacy of Italy.[2] Not only in thought, but in art, was there an
outburst brilliant beyond all earlier times. A friend and pupil of Cosmo
de' Medici was made pope at Rome, and under the name of Nicholas V
originated vast schemes for the rebuilding and beautifying of his city of
ruins.[3] Modern Rome with all its beautiful churches and wonders of art
rose from the hands of Nicholas and his immediate successors. It was
their idea that the city should no longer be remembered by its heathen
greatness, but by its Christian splendor; that the sight of it should
impress upon pilgrims not the decay of the world, but the glory and
majesty of the Church. Nicholas also continued the work of Petrarch,
gathering vast stores of ancient manuscripts, refounding and practically
beginning the enormous Vatican Library. He established that alliance of
the Church with the new culture of the age which for a century continued
to be an honor and distinguishment to both.

In his pontificate occurred the fall of Constantinople, bringing with
it the definite establishment of the Turks in Europe and the final
extinction of that Roman Empire of the East which had originated with
Constantine. For this reason the date of its fall (1453) is also employed
as marking the beginning of modern Europe. It was at least the closing of
the older volume, the final not undramatic exit of the last remnant of
the ancient world, with its long decaying arts and arrogance, its wealth,
its literature, and its law.[4]

Greek scholars fleeing from the sack of their city brought many
marvellous old manuscripts to Western Europe and were eagerly welcomed by
Pope Nicholas and all of Italy. Nicholas even preached a crusade against
the terrible Turks, and tried once more to rouse Europe to ancient
enthusiasms. But he failed, and died, they say, heartbroken at his
helplessness.

THE CLASH OF RACES IN THE EAST

The Turks had recovered from their defeat by the Tartars of Timur, and
became once more an active menace. With Constantinople in their power,
they attacked the Venetians and compelled those wealthy traders to pay
them tribute. Venice by sea and Hungary on land remained for a century
the bulwarks of Christendom, and were forced, almost unaided, to
withstand all the assaults of the East. They wellnigh perished in the
effort. In Hungary this was the period of the great hero, Hunyady, a
man of unknown birth and no official rank, who roused his countrymen to
repeated effort and led them to repeated victories and defeats against
the vastly more numerous invaders.[5]

Hunyady died, worn out with ceaseless warfare, and his son, Matthias,
was elected by acclamation to be monarch of the land the father had
preserved. This was the proudest era in the history of the Hunnish race.
Under Matthias they even resumed their German warfare of five centuries
before, and won from a Hapsburg emperor his city of Vienna, ancient
capital of Austria, the eastmark or borderland which had been erected by
Otto the Great to hold the Huns in check. For a few years Matthias placed
his kingdom amid the foremost states of Europe; but with his death came
renewed disunion and disorder to his lawless people, and the fierce,
fanatic Turks returned again to their assaults.

Further north the yellow races were less successful. Along the shifting
borderlands of Asia which mark the line of demarcation between the two
mightier families of man, the tide turned ever more steadily in the
Aryans' favor. The Russians, under their chief, Ivan III, threw off the
galling Tartar yoke which they had borne for over two hundred years.
Ivan concentrated in his own hands the power of all the little Russian
duchies, overthrew the celebrated Russian republic of Novgorod the Great,
and defied the Tartars. Equally noteworthy to modern eyes was his wedding
with Sophia, heiress of the last of the emperors of the East. When that
outworn empire perished with the fall of Constantinople, Ivan succeeded
nominally at least to its heirship. Hence it is that his successors have
assumed the title of caesar or kaiser or czar and have grown to look upon
themselves as inheritors of the ancient supremacy of Rome.[6]

The fifteenth century was thus a time of many changes in Eastern Europe.
Not only did the Eastern Empire disappear at last, not only did Hungary
rise to the brief zenith of her glory, there was a sort of general
movement, sometimes spoken of as the "Slavonic reaction," against the
hitherto successful Teutons. The Slavic Bohemians in their "Hussite" wars
repelled all the religious fighting strength of Europe. The Poles began
to win back territory from the German empire, and especially from their
hereditary foes the "Teutonic Knights" of Prussia. And Russia, greatest
of all the Slav countries, grew into a strong kingdom. She and Turkey,
rising as twin menaces to the West, assumed at almost the same period
that threatening aspect which Turkey has only lately lost, and Russia, to
some statesmen's eyes, still holds.

POLITICAL CHANGES IN WESTERN EUROPE

Turn now to the affairs of Western Europe. The feebleness of the German
empire continued. For over half a century it was nominally ruled by
Frederick III (1440-1493), the lazy and feeble emperor who let Matthias
of Hungary expel him from Vienna, and never made any vigorous effort to
recover his capital. He was succeeded by his son Maximilian, a man of far
other temper, full of courage, energy, and hardihood. Maximilian has been
called "the last of the knights," and indeed his whole career may well
exemplify the changing times. The one achievement of his life was the
recovery of Vienna from the Hungarians, and in that he was successful
only because the heirs of Matthias were being overwhelmed by the Turks.

The remainder of his career was spent in learning bitterly how little
real power he had as emperor. He attempted to bring the Swiss once more
under the imperial dominion, but the little armies he could scrape
together against them were repeatedly defeated.[7] He was always
declaring war against this kingdom or that, and summoning his great
lords to aid him in upholding the glory of the empire. They persistently
declined; and he was helpless. At one time having pledged his alliance to
the English king, Henry VII, against France, he preserved his knightly
word by going alone and serving as a volunteer in Henry's army, whither
his people would not follow him. Instead they stayed at home and demanded
from him constitutions and courts of law and other internal reforms,
uninteresting matters about which the gallant soul of Maximilian cared
not a straw and which he gave his subjects under protest.

To the westward of him a far subtler monarch, by far subtler means, was
strengthening the power of France and making smooth her way toward that
supremacy over European affairs which she was later to assert. Louis XI
(1461-1483) is called the first modern king, though it is little flattery
to modern statecraft to compare its methods with his, and perhaps our
recent governments have truly outgrown them. Louis was no warrior,
although under compulsion he showed possibilities of becoming an able
general. He preferred to send others who should do his fighting for him,
to embroil his opponents one with another, and then reap the fruit of
their mutual exhaustion. He was passed master of all falsity and craft;
and by his shrewdness he brought to his country peace and prosperity.
Typically does he represent his age in which intellectual ability, though
sometimes wholly divorced from nobleness of soul, began to dominate brute
force.

Charles the Bold stands as the representative of this brute force. He was
the mightiest of the French nobles. His ancestors, a younger branch
of the royal family, had been made dukes of Burgundy, and by skilful
alliances and rapid changes of side through the long Hundred Years' War,
they had steadily added to their possessions and their powers. The father
of Charles found himself stronger than his king, possessor not only of
Burgundy, but of many other fiefs from Germany as well as France, and
lord of the Netherlands as well.[8]

Charles was thus the last of those great, overgrown vassals so
characteristic of feudal times. Like Hugh Capet in France, like William
the Conqueror in England, he hoped to establish himself as an independent
king. He opened negotiations for this purpose with the Emperor Frederick,
Maximilian's father. He made himself practically independent of France.
He wielded a military power greater than that of any other prince of the
moment, and he knew it and charged like a mad bull at whoever seemed to
interpose in his designs.

Over such a man Louis XI's cunning had full play. He involved Charles in
fights with every neighbor. Finally he lured him into conflict with the
Swiss, and those hardy mountaineers won the repute of being the best
soldiers of Europe by defeating Charles again and again till they left
him slain on the field of Nancy (1477).[9] Louis promptly seized most of
his dead vassal's domains. Maximilian, having wedded Charles' daughter,
inherited the remainder; and the old Burgundian kingdom, so nearly
revived to stretch as a permanent dividing land between France and
Germany, disappeared forever.

What Louis had done with Burgundy he attempted with his other
semi-independent duchies. The Hundred Years' War had almost destroyed
central government in France. Louis, by means as secret and varied as his
cunning could suggest, gradually reestablished an undisputed leadership
above his lords. Fortunately for France, perhaps, England was prevented
by a long series of civil wars from interfering in her neighbor's
affairs. These wars, though they originated before Louis' time, were
constantly fomented and kept alive by him, and England thus paid dearly
for having become a source of danger to France.

The Wars of the Roses,[10] as they are called, caused deep-seated changes
in England's life and society. They mark for her the transition from the
mediaeval to the modern era which was everywhere taking place. Beginning
as a contest between two rival branches of the Plantagenets for the
kingship, these wars remained aristocratic throughout. That is to say,
the common people took little interest in them, while the nobles,
espousing sides, fought savagely and murderously, giving one another
no quarter, sparing the lesser folk, but executing as traitors their
prisoners of rank. When one side seemed hopelessly overcome, Louis would
lend them arms and money wherewith to seek revenge once more. Thus almost
all the old nobility of England perished; and both lines of kings became
extinct, Richard III, their last representative, being accused of
murdering all his relatives or possible rivals.[11] At last, Richard too
was slain, and a new family of rulers, only remotely connected with the
old, was inaugurated by Henry Tudor, grandson of a private gentleman of
Wales. This new king, Henry VII (1485-1509), found no powerful lords to
oppose his will. One or two impostors were raised against him,[12] France
making anxious efforts to prolong the troubles of her dangerous
neighbor; but the attempts failed through the utter completeness of the
aristocracy's exhaustion.

Thus in England as in France, though by widely differing chances, the
kingly power had triumphed over feudalism. Monarchs began to come into
direct contact, not always pleasant, with the entire mass of their
subjects, the "third estate," the common people.

RISE OF SPANISH POWER

Spain also was to pass through a similar experience. Indeed, one of the
most striking facts of this age of the Renaissance is the swift and
spectacular rise of Spain from a land of feebleness and internal strife
into the most powerful kingdom of Europe. We have seen the Spanish
peninsula in previous ages the seat of endless strife between Saracens
and Christians. Gradually the Moors had been driven back, and the little
independent Christian states had been united by the fortunes of war and
marriage into three--Portugal on the Atlantic coast, Castile occupying
the larger part of the mainland, and Aragon, a maritime kingdom, less
extensive in Spain, but extending its sovereignty over many of the
Mediterranean isles, over Sicily and southern Italy. In 1469 Isabella,
heiress of Castile, and Ferdinand, heir of Aragon, were wedded; and
soon afterward their countries were united under their joint rule. The
combined strength of both was then devoted to a long religious war
against the Moors. Granada, the last and most famous of the Moorish
capitals and strongholds, was finally captured in 1492.[13] The followers
of Mahomet were driven out of Western Europe during the same period that,
under Turkish leadership, they had at last won Constantinople in the
East.

The whole Spanish peninsula with the exception of Portugal was thus
united under Ferdinand and Isabella, greatest of the sovereigns of
Spain. The ages of battle with the Moors had bred a nation of cavaliers,
intensely loyal, passionately religious. They were splendid fighters, but
stern, hard-hearted, merciless men. Isabella, "the Saint," most holy and
pure-souled of women, herself introduced into her country the terrible
Inquisition.[14] Jews and Moors were given little peace in life unless
they turned Christian. Heretics and relapsed converts from the other
faiths were burned to death. The Queen declared she would approve all
possible torture to men's bodies, when necessary in order to save their
souls.

If such were the women of Spain, what was to be expected of the men? How
could even Ferdinand, "the Wise," keep them employed now that there
were no longer Moors to fight against? Uprisings, rebellions, began to
threaten Spain with such desolation as England had endured. But a higher
Providence solved for Ferdinand his impossible problem: the age of
maritime discovery began.[15]

THE ERA OF DISCOVERY

The Portuguese from their Atlantic seaboard had already begun to explore
southward along the African coast. In 1402 they had settled the Canary
Isles. In 1443 they reached southward beyond the sands of the Sahara and
saw Cape Verd, discovered that Africa was not all burning desert,
that heat would not forever increase as they went southward. In 1487
Bartholomew Diaz, after almost a year of sailing, reached the Cape of
Good Hope, the southern point of the vast African continent; and in 1497
Vasco da Gama rounded the cape and sailed on to India[16]. He had found a
way of bringing Indian spices, silks, and jewels to Europe, bringing them
in quantities and without paying tribute to the Turks, without crossing
the deadly deserts of Arabia. He had made his little country wealthy.

Meanwhile, stimulated by Portuguese success, the mariners of other
nations began to brave the giant storms of the Atlantic. The Turks had
made trade with the far East wellnigh impossible. Portugal was not the
only land to seek a sea-route to India. Venice and Genoa saw before them
the threat of ruin to their most profitable commerce. So we may even say
that it was the Turks who set the Genoese captain Columbus to planning
his great voyage; it was the conquest of the Moors that set Isabella free
to listen to him, and offer her crown jewels for the expedition which
should convert other heathen, establish other inquisitions; and it was
the downfall of the Moors which left the Spanish warriors so eager to
throng to adventure and warfare in the West, once Columbus had shown the
way.

For a time the theatre of great events shifts to the new continent.
The Portuguese explorers had doubled the size of the known world. The
Spaniards doubled it again. But the credit must not be given wholly
to Spain. Though it was the liberality of her monarchs which had made
discovery possible, and though it was the daring of her warriors that
laughed at danger and made conquest sure, yet the Spaniards were not
sailors. It was to Italy, the home of commerce, that they turned for
their captains and their pilots. Columbus, the Genoese, had discovered
the islands along the coast. England, wishing to have a share in this
world of wonders, sent a Venetian mariner, John Cabot; and he and his son
sailed along our northern mainland in English ships.[17] Columbus touched
the coast of South America in 1498.[18] A Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci,
was the first to cruise far along this southern coast, probably in 1499,
and it was his name which Europe gave to the new lands.[19]

Following the discovery came settlement, warfare with the unhappy
Indians, a fierce and frantic search for gold. It was while engaged in
this work that Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, saw the vast
waters of the Pacific, and riding out into them upon his warhorse took
possession, in the name of Spain, of the largest ocean of the globe.[20]
Men recognized at last that these were not the Asiatic shores, but a
wholly new continent which they had found.

RELIGIOUS CHANGES

Let us pause to recapitulate the wonders which this age of the
Renaissance had seen--a new world of Africa discovered in the South, a
new world of America in the West, the rise of Spain, the conquest of the
last of the western Saracens at Granada and the rise of the Turks in the
East, the rise of Russia, the downfall of the last vestige of the ancient
empire of Rome, the last expiring effort of feudalism in Charles the
Bold, and of errant knighthood in Maximilian; the beginning of modern
statecraft in Louis XI of France, Henry VII of England, and Ferdinand the
Wise of Spain; the spread of printing and with it the spread of thought
and knowledge among the masses; and, sometimes accounted greatest of all,
came the wonderful awakening of art in Italy. We have traced the early
part of this under the Medici and Pope Nicholas. Lorenzo de'Medici was
the centre of its later development.[21] From his court went forth that
galaxy of artists which the world of art unites in calling the unequalled
masters of all ages--Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and a host of
others.[22]

Unfortunately in Italy at least the great movement in art and literature
took an antireligious, sometimes an antipatriotic, tone. Lorenzo was
openly defiant and scornful of the teachings of the Church, and after his
death a French king, Charles VIII, was able to enter Italy and march from
end to end of it without opposition. Religion seemed dying there, and
love of country dead.

Florence underwent an extravagant though brief religious revival. The
monk Savonarola preached against wickedness in high places, and thundered
at the Florentines for their presumption and vanity. The impressionable
people wept, they appointed a "day of vanities" and laid all their rich
robes and jewels at Savonarola's feet. They made him ruler of the city.
But, alas! they soon tired of his severities, sighed for their vanities
back again, and at last burned the reformer at the stake.[23]

In Rome itself there arose popes, Lorenzo's followers, who preferred
art to Christianity, or others like the terrible Alexander Borgia, who
adopted the maxims of the new statecraft. Alexander, a worthy disciple of
Louis XI, admired falsehood before truth, and sought to win his aims by
poisoning his enemies. The career of his nephew Caesar Borgia has supplied
history with its most awful picture of successful crime, and the book
written in his praise by Macchiavelli has given us a new word for Satanic
subtlety and treachery. We call it Macchiavellian. The rest of Europe
shrank from Italy in fear, and named it "poisoning Italy."[24]

Against the spiritual dominance of such a land the world was surely ready
for revolt. The mind of man, so long and slowly awakening, and at last so
intensely roused, seeing great discoveries on every hand, was no longer
to be controlled by authority. The time was ripe for the Reformation.

[FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME IX]

[Footnote 1: See _Origin and Progress of Printing_, page 5.]

[Footnote 2: See _Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance_, vol. ix, p.
110.]

[Footnote 3: See _Rebuilding of Rome by Nicholas V_, page 46.]

[Footnote 4: See _Mahomet II Takes Constantinople_, page 55.]

[Footnote 5: See _John Hunyady Repulses the Turks_, page 30.]

[Footnote 6: See _Ivan the Great Unites Russia_, page 109.]

[Footnote 7: See _Establishment of Swiss Independence_, page 336.]

[Footnote 8: See _Culmination of the Power of Burgundy_, page 125.]

[Footnote 9: See _Death of Charles the Bold_, page 155.]

[Footnote 10: See _Wars of the Roses_, page 72.]

[Footnote 11: See _Murder of the Princes in the Tower_, page 192,]

[Footnote 12: See _Conspiracy, Rebellion, and Execution of Perkin
Warbeck_, page 250.]

[Footnote 13: See _Conquest of Granada_, page 202.]

[Footnote 14: See _Inquisition Established in Spain_, page 166.]

[Footnote 15: See _Columbus Discovers America_, page 224.]

[Footnote 16: See _The Sea Route to India_, page 299.]

[Footnote 17: See _Discovery of the Mainland of North America by the
Cabots_, page 282.]

[Footnote 18: See _Columbus Discovers South America_, page 323.]

[Footnote 19: See _Amerigo Vespucci in America_, page 346.]

[Footnote 20: See _Balboa Discovers the Pacific_, page 381.]

[Footnote 21: See _Lorenzo de'Medici Rules in Florence_, page 134.]

[Footnote 22: See _Painting of the Sistine Chapel_, page 369.]

[Footnote 23: See _Savonarola's Reforms and Death_, page 265.]

[Footnote 24: See _Rise and Fall of the Borgias_, page 360.]



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PRINTING

A.D. 1438

HENRY GEORGE BOHN


It was perhaps not altogether fortuitous that the invention of printing
came concurrently with the Revival of Learning. Men's minds were turned
toward practical experiment in that art by the very influences made
active through the labors of those scholars who ushered in the
Renaissance. "The art preservative of all other arts" has also preserved
the records of its own beginnings and development, although of its
earlier sources our knowledge is very obscure, and even the modern
achievement, which antiquity in various ways foreshadowed, is itself a
subject of uncertainty and dispute.

Bohn, in his admirable survey of the origin and progress of modern
printing, gives us a full and accurate account, from the earliest
evidences and conjectures relating to antiquity to the latter part of the
nineteenth century, confining himself, however, to European developments.
But before the middle of the sixteenth century printing was introduced
into Spanish America. Existing books show that in Mexico there was a
press as early as 1540; but it is impossible to name positively the first
book printed on this continent. North of Mexico the first press was used,
1639, by an English Non-conformist clergyman named Glover. In 1660 a
printer with press and types was sent from England by the corporation for
propagating the gospel among the Indians of New England in the Indian
language. This press was taken to a printing-house already established at
Cambridge, Mass. It was not until several years later that the use of a
press in Boston was permitted by the colonial government, and until near
the end of the seventeenth century no presses were set up in the colonies
outside of Massachusetts.

In 1685 printing began in Pennsylvania, a few years later in New York,
and in Connecticut in 1709. From 1685 to 1693 William Bradford, an
English Quaker, conducted a press in Philadelphia, and in the latter
year he removed his plant to New York. He was the first notable American
printer, and became official printer for Pennsylvania, New York, New
Jersey, Rhode Island, and Maryland. His first book was an almanac for
1686. In 1725 he founded the _New York Gazette_, the first newspaper in
New York. But the first newspaper published in the English colonies was
the _Boston News-Letter_, founded in 1704 by John Campbell, a bookseller
and postmaster in Boston. Only four American periodicals had been
established when, in 1729, Benjamin Franklin, who was already printer
to the Pennsylvania Assembly, became proprietor and editor of the
_Pennsylvania Gazette_.

Until the last quarter of the eighteenth century the progress of printing
in America was slow. But in 1784 the first daily newspaper, the _American
Daily Advertiser_, was issued in Philadelphia, and from this time
periodical publications multiplied and the printing of books increased,
until the agency and influence of the press became as marked in the
United States as in the leading countries of Europe.

Even since the time when Bohn wrote, the progress made in various
branches of the printer's art has been such as might have astonished
that famous publisher of so many standard works. Recent improvements
for increasing the capacity of the press, and often the quality of its
productions, are quite comparable to those which our own time has seen in
other departments of industry, as in the applications of electricity and
the like. In addition to the further development of stereotyping, there
has been marvellous improvement in nearly all the machinery and processes
of printing. This is especially marked in rapid color-printing, and in
the successors of inadequate typesetting-machines--in the linotype, the
monotype, the typograph, etc.

Most wonderful of all, perhaps, is the improved printing-press itself,
in various classes, each adapted to its special purpose. The sum of all
improvements in this department of mechanical invention is seen in the
great cylinder-presses now in general use, especially the one known as
the web perfecting press. This is a machine of great size and intricate
construction, which yet does its complex work with an accuracy that
almost seems to denote conscious intelligence. It prints from an immense
roll of paper, making the impression from curved stereotype plates, runs
at high speed, prints both sides of the paper at one run, and folds,
pastes, and performs other processes as provided for. By doubling and
quadrupling the parts, the ordinary speed of about twenty-four thousand
impressions an hour may be increased to one hundred thousand an hour.
The multicolor web perfecting press prints four or more colors at one
revolution of the impression cylinder.

To meet the demands of such an enormous consumption of paper as the
modern press requires, it was necessary to invent other processes and to
utilize more abundant and cheaper material for paper-making than those
formerly employed. This requirement has been supplied in recent years
mainly through the extensive manufacture of paper from wood-pulp. This
method, together with improved processes in the use of other materials,
has removed all fear of a paper famine such as has sometimes threatened
the printing industry in the past.

"Nature does not advance by leaps," says an old proverb; neither does her
offspring, Art. All the great boons vouchsafed to man by a munificent
providence are of gradual development; and though some may appear to have
come upon us suddenly, reflection and inquiry will always show that they
have had their previous stages.

Indeed, nothing in this great world which concerns the well-being of man
takes place by accident, but is brought forward by divine will, precisely
at the moment most suitable to our condition. So it was with astronomy,
the mariner's compass, the steam-engine, gas, the electric telegraph, and
many other of those blessings which have progressed with civilization.
The elements were there and known, but the time had not arrived for their
fructification.

And so it is with printing: although its invention is placed in the
middle of the fifteenth century, and almost the very year fixed, this can
only be regarded as a matured stage of it. To illustrate this, I propose
to begin with a cursory view of its primitive elements, of which the very
first were no doubt initiative marks and numerals.

The use of numerals has been denominated "the foundation of all the arts
of life"; and we know with certainty that several nations, and among them
the Mexicans, had numerals before they were acquainted with letters. The
first method of reckoning was with the fingers, but small stones were
also used--hence the words "calculate" and "calculation," which are
derived from _calculus_, the Latin for a pebble-stone.

The Chinese counted for many years with notched sticks; and even in
England, in comparatively modern times, accounts were kept by tallies, in
which notches were cut alike in two parallel pieces of wood. Shakespeare
alludes to "the score and the tally" in his _Henry VI_; and this mode
of keeping accounts is still adopted by some of the bakers and dyers in
Warwickshire and Cheshire. And tallies are occasionally produced in the
small-debt courts, where they are admitted as authentic proofs of debt.
Hence the origin and name of the "tally court of the exchequer." The
Peruvians, at the time they were conquered by Pizarro, counted with
knotted strings.

After numerals, came picture-writing, hieroglyphics, and symbolic
characters, such are were used by the Egyptians, the Chinese, and the
Mexicans; which, however unconnected they may be with each other, are
of the same general character. Indeed, the Chinese have never advanced
beyond symbolic characters, of which it is said they have more than one
hundred thousand combinations or varieties.

Rude as these conditions of humanity may seem, they are matched in modern
England, even at a very recent date, if we may credit a well-known story:
A rustic shopkeeper in a remote district, being unable to read or write,
contrived to keep his accounts by picture-writing, and charged his
customer, the miller, with a cheese instead of a grindstone, from having
omitted to mark a hole in the centre.

After picture and symbolic writings would follow phonetic characters,
or marks for sounds; that is, the alphabet. Even the alphabet, which in
civilized countries has now existed for more than three thousand years,
was perfected by degrees; for it has been clearly ascertained that
the earliest known did not comprise more than one-half or, at most,
two-thirds of the letters which eventually formed its complement. Thus,
the Pelasgian alphabet, which is derived from the Phoenician, and is the
parent of the Greek and Roman, consisted originally of only twelve or
thirteen letters.

The invention of the alphabet, which, in a small number of elementary
characters, is capable of six hundred and twenty sextillions of
combinations, and of exhibiting to the sight the countless conceptions of
the mind which have no corporeal forms, is so wonderful that great men of
all ages have shrunk from accounting for it otherwise than as a boon of
divine origin. This feeling is strengthened by the singular circumstance
that so many alphabets bear a strong similarity to each other, however
widely separated the countries in which they arose.

In Egypt the invention of the alphabet is by some ascribed to Syphoas,
nearly two thousand years before the Christian era, but more commonly
to Athotes, Thoth, or Toth, a deity always figured with the head of the
ibis, and very familiar in Egyptian antiquities. Cadmus is accredited
with having introduced it from Egypt into Greece about five centuries
later.

From the alphabet the gradation is natural to compounds of letters and
written language, and, though speech is one of the greatest gifts to man,
it is writing which distinguishes him from the uncivilized savage. The
practice of writing is of such remote antiquity that neither sacred nor
profane authors can satisfactorily trace its origin. The philosopher may
exclaim with the poet:

"Whence did the wondrous mystic art arise. Of painting speech and
speaking to the eyes? That we, by tracing magic lines, are taught How
both to color and embody thought?"

The earliest writing would probably have been with chalk, charcoal,
slate, or perhaps sand, as children from time immemorial have been taught
to read and write in India. The Romans used white walls for writing
inscriptions on, in red chalk--answering the purpose of our
posting-bills--of which several instances were found on the walls of
Pompeii. Plutarch informs us that tradesmen wrote in some such manner
over their doors, and that auction bills ran thus:

"Julius Proculus will this day have an auction of his superfluous goods,
to pay his debts."

Next seems to have followed writing or engraving on stone, wood, ivory,
and metals, of which we have many early evidences. The Decalogue, or the
Ten Commandments, given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, was originally,
we are told in the Bible, written upon two tables of stone; the pillars
of Seth were of brick and stone; the laws of the Greeks were graven on
tables of brass, which were called _cyrbes_. Herodotus mentions a letter
written with a style on stone slabs, which Themistocles, the Athenian
general, sent to the Romans about B.C. 500; and we have another evidence
of the same period still existing--the so-called Borgian inscription,
which is a passport graven in bronze, entitling the holder to hospitable
reception wherever he demanded it. Upward of three thousand of such
engraved tablets, including the famous Roman laws of the Twelve Tables,
were consumed in the great fire which destroyed the Capitol in the time
of Vespasian.

I could cite a great many other evidences of early writing on stone or
brass, but will merely recommend you to see the Rosetta[25] inscription,
which is conspicuously placed in the British Museum. It is this very
interesting stone which, being partly Greek and partly Egyptian, has
enabled us to decipher so many Egyptian monuments.

Pliny informs us that table-books of wood--generally made of box or
citron wood--were in use before the time of Homer, that is, nearly three
thousand years ago; and in the Bible we read of table-books in the time
of Solomon. These table-books were called by the Romans _pugillares_,
which may be translated "hand-books"; the wood was cut into thin slices,
finely planed and polished, and written upon with an iron instrument
called a _stylus_. At a later period, tables, or slices of wood, were
usually covered with a thin layer of hard wax, so that any matter written
upon them might be effaced at pleasure, and the tables used again. Such
practice continued as late as A.D. 1395. In an account roll of Winchester
College of that year we find that a table covered with green wax was kept
in the chapel for noting down with a style the daily or weekly duties
assigned to the officers of the choir. Ivory also was used in the same
way.

Wooden table-books, as we learn from Chaucer, were used in England as
late as the fifteenth century. When epistles were written upon tables of
wood they were usually tied together with cord, the seal being put upon
the knot. Some of the table-books must have been large and heavy, for
in Plautus a schoolboy seven years old is represented as breaking his
master's head with his table-book.

Writing seems also to have been common, at a very early period, on palm
and olive leaves, and especially on the bark of trees--a material used
even in the present time in some parts of Asia. The bark is generally cut
into thin flat pieces, from nine to fifteen inches long and two to four
inches wide, and written on with a sharp instrument. Indeed, the tree,
whether in planks, bark, or leaves, seems in ancient times to have
afforded the principal materials for writing on. Hence the word _codex_,
originally signifying the "trunk or stem of a tree," now means a
manuscript volume. _Tabula_, which properly means a "plank" or "board,"
now also signifies the plate of a book, and was so used by Addison, who
calls his plates "tables." _Folium_ ("a leaf") has given us the word
"folio"; and the word _liber_, originally meaning the "inner bark of a
tree," was afterward used by the Romans to signify a book; whence we
derive our words, "library," "librarian," etc. One more such etymology,
the most interesting of all, is the Greek name for the bark of a tree,
_biblos_, whence is derived the name of our sacred volume.

Before I leave this stage of the subject, I will mention the way in which
the Roman youth were taught writing. Quintilian tells us that they were
made to write through perforated tablets, so as to draw the stylus
through a kind of furrow; and we learn from Procopius that a similar
contrivance was used by the emperor Justinian for signing his name. Such
a tablet would now be called a stencil-plate, and is what to the present
day is found the most rapid and convenient mode of marking goods, only
that a brush is used instead of an iron pen or style.

Writing and materials have so much to do with the invention of printing
that I feel obliged to tarry a little longer at this preliminary stage.
The most important of all the ancient materials for writing upon were
papyrus, parchment, and vellum; and on these substances nearly all our
most valuable manuscripts were written. Papyrus, or paper-rush, is a
large fibrous plant which abounds in the marshes of Egypt, especially
near the borders of the Nile. It was manufactured into a thick sort of
paper at a very early period, Pliny says three centuries before the reign
of Alexander the Great; and Cassiodorus, who lived in the sixth century,
states that it then covered all the desks of the world. Indeed, it had
become so essential to the Greeks and Romans that the occasional scarcity
of it is recorded to have produced riots. Every man of rank and education
kept _librarii_, or book-writers, in his house; and many _servi_, or
slaves, were trained to this service, so that they were a numerous class.

Papyrus is a very durable substance, made of the innermost pellicles of
the stalk, glued together transversely, with the glutinous water of
the Nile. It was for many centuries the great staple of Egypt, and was
exported in large quantities to almost every part of Europe and Asia, but
never, it would appear, to England or Germany. After the seventh century
its use was gradually superseded by the introduction of parchment; and
before the end of the twelfth century it had gone generally out of use.
From "papyrus" the name of "paper," which, with slight variations, is
common to many languages, is no doubt derived.

Parchment and vellum--which are made from the skin of animals, the former
from sheep or goat, the latter from calf, both prepared with lime--were
in use at a very early period, long before their accredited introduction.
It has been by some supposed that Eumenes, King of Pergamus, who lived
about B.C. 190, was the inventor of parchment; but it was known much
earlier, as may be seen by several references to it in the Bible (Isaiah,
viii. i; Jeremiah, xxxvi. 2; Ezekiel, xi. 9). It is, however, very
probable that it may have been brought to perfection at Pergamus, as it
was one of the principal articles of commerce of that kingdom.

Parchment, in early times, was not only expensive, but often very
difficult to procure; whence arose the practice of erasing old writing
from it, and engrossing it a second time. Such manuscripts are called
"palimpsests." Modern art has found the means of discharging the more
recent ink, and thus restoring the original writing, by which means we
have recovered many valuable pieces, particularly Cicero's lost book, _de
Republica_ and some fragments of his _Orations_.

The most ancient manuscripts, both on papyrus and parchment, were kept
in rolls, called in Latin _volumina_, whence our English word "volume."
Chinese paper, made from the bark of the bamboo, the mulberry, or the
khu-ku tree, and so extremely thin that it can only be used on one side,
is supposed to have been invented fifty years before the Christian era
or earlier. Chinese rice-paper is made from the stems of the bread-fruit
tree, cut into slices and pressed. The skins of all kinds of animals
are used--among them the African skin, of a brown color, upon which the
Hebrew Pentateuch and service-books used in the Jewish synagogues were
formerly written. Silk-paper was prepared for the most part in Spain
and its colonies, but was never brought to much perfection. Asbestos, a
fibrous mineral, was made into paper, tolerably light and pliant, which,
being incombustible, was denominated "eternal paper." Herodotus tells
us that cloth was made of asbestos by the Egyptians; and Pliny mentions
napkins made of it in A.D. 74. We know by tradition that the intestines
of a serpent served for Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_; and that the
_Koran_ was written in part on shoulder-bones of mutton, kept in a
domestic chest by one of Mahomet's wives.

We now come to the great period of writing-papers made from cotton and
linen rags, as used at the present day, and which from the first were
so perfect that they have since undergone no material improvement.
Cotton-paper was an Eastern invention, probably introduced in the ninth
century, although not generally used in Europe till about the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. Greek manuscripts are found upon it of the earlier
period, and Italian manuscripts of the later. It seems to have prevailed
at particular periods, in particular countries, according to the
facilities for procuring it, as it now does almost exclusively in
America. Linen paper, the most valuable and important of all the bases
available for writing or printing, is likewise supposed to have been
introduced into Europe from the East, early in the thirteenth century,
although not in general use till the fourteenth.

Before the end of the fourteenth century, paper-mills had been
established in many parts of Europe, first in Spain, and then
successively in Italy, Germany, Holland, and France. They seem to have
come late into England, for Caxton printed all his books on paper
imported from the Low Countries; and it was not till Winkin de Worde
succeeded him, in 1495, that paper was manufactured in England. The
Chinese are supposed to have used it for centuries before, and appear to
have the best title to be considered the inventors of both cotton and
linen paper.

Paper may be made of many other materials, such as hay, straw, nettles,
flax, grasses, parsnips, turnips, colewort leaves, wood-shavings, indeed
of anything fibrous; but as the invention of printing is not concerned in
them, I see no occasion to consider their merits.

Before I pass from paper, it may not be irrelevant to say a word or
two on the names by which we distinguish the sorts and sizes. The
term "post-paper" is derived from the ancient water-mark, which was a
post-horn, and not from its suitableness to transport by post, as many
suppose. The original watermark of a fool's cap gave the name to that
paper, which it still retains, although the fool's cap was afterward
changed to a cap of liberty, and has since undergone other changes. The
smaller size, called "pot-paper," took its name from having at first
been marked with a flagon or pot. Demy-paper, on which octavo books
are usually printed, is so called from being originally a "demi" or
half-sized paper; the term is now, however, equally applied to hard or
writing papers. Hand-cap, which is a coarse paper used for packing, bore
the water-mark of an open hand.

I will now say a few words about pens and ink, for without them we could
neither have had printing nor books. Pens are of great antiquity, and are
frequently alluded to in the Bible. Pens of iron, which may mean styles,
are mentioned by Job and Jeremiah. Reed pens are known to have been in
common use by the ancients, and some were discovered at Pompeii. Pens of
gold and silver are alluded to by the classical writers, and there
is evidence of the use of quills in the seventh century. Of whatever
material the pen was made, it was called a _calamus_, whence our familiar
saying, "_currente calamo_" ("with a flowing pen"). The use of styles, or
iron pens, must have been very prevalent in ancient days, as Suetonius
tells us that the emperor Caligula incited the people to massacre a Roman
senator with their styles; and, previous to that, Caesar had wounded
Cassius with his style.

The next, and not the least important, ingredient in writing and printing
is ink. Staining and coloring matters were well known to the ancients at
a very early period, witness the lustrous pigments on Etruscan vases more
than two thousand years ago; and inks are often mentioned in the Bible.
Gold, silver, red, blue, and green inks were thoroughly understood in
the Middle Ages, and perhaps earlier; and the black writing-ink of the
seventh down to the tenth century, as seen in our manuscripts, was in
such perfection that it has retained its lustre better than some of
later ages. Printing-ink, by the time it began to be currently used for
book-printing in the fifteenth century, had attained a perfection which
has never been surpassed, and indeed scarcely equalled.

Paper and ink being at their highest point, we will now consider the
advances which had in the mean time been made in engraving and type or
letter cutting. It will be seen that the material elements of printing
were by degrees converging to a culminating point. The evidences of
engraving, both in relief and intaglio, are of very ancient date. I need
hardly remind you of the exquisite workmanship on coins, cameos, and
seals, many centuries before the Christian era, to illustrate the high
state of cultivation at which the arts must then have arrived. The art of
casting and chasing in bronze was extensively practised in the twelfth
century, and I have seen a specimen with letters so cut in relief that
they might be separated to form movable type. The goldsmiths were
certainly among the greatest artists of the early ages, and were
competent to execute forms or moulds of any kind to perfection.

In the British Museum is a brass signet stamp, more than two thousand
years old, on which two lines of letters are very neatly engraved
in relief, in the reversed order necessary for printing; and as the
interstices are cut away very deeply and roughly, there is little doubt
but that this stamp was used with ink on papyrus, parchment, or
linen, for paper was not then known. Indeed, the experiment of taking
impressions from it in printing-ink has been tried, and found to answer
perfectly. A large surface so engraved would at once have given to the
world an equivalent to what is now regarded as the most advanced state of
the art of printing; that is, a stereotype plate. Vergil mentions brands
for marking cattle with their owner's name; probably this kind of brass
stamp, but larger.

I could cite many more examples of ancient engraving which would yield
impressions on paper, either by pressure or friction. But our business is
with printing rather than engraving; I will, therefore, go back to the
subject, and cite a very early and interesting example of stamping
engraved letters on clay. I mean the Babylonian bricks, supposed to be
four thousand years old, mostly sun-baked, but some apparently kiln-burnt
almost to vitrification. Of these there are now many examples in England,
added to our stores by the indefatigable researches of Layard, Rawlinson,
and others. These bricks, which are about a foot square and three inches
thick, are on one side covered with hieroglyphics, evidently impressed
with a stamp, just as letters are now stamped on official papers.

Another evidence of the same kind, and of about the same age, is the
famous Babylonian cylinder found in the ruins of Persepolis, and now
preserved in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is about
seven inches high, barrel-shaped, and covered with inscriptions in the
cuneiform character, disposed in vertical lines, and affording a positive
example of an indented surface produced by mechanical impression. Such
cylinders are supposed to have been memorials of matters of national or
family importance, and were in early ages, as we know by tradition, very
numerous. Stamped or printed blocks of lead, bearing the names of Roman
authorities, are to be found in the British Museum.

Printing on leather was practised by the Egyptians, as we discover from
their mummies, which have bandages of leather round their heads, with the
name of the deceased printed on them. And in Pompeii a loaf was found on
which the name of the baker and its quality were printed. Among ancient
testimonies, one of the most interesting is that afforded by Cicero in
his _de Natura Deorum_. He orders types to be made of metal, and calls
them _forma literarum_--the very words used by our first printers; and in
another place he gives a hint of separate cut letters when he speaks of
the impossibility of the most ingenious man throwing the twenty-four
letters of the alphabet together by chance, and thus producing the famous
_Annals_ of Ennius. He makes that observation in opposition to the
atheistical argument of the creation of the world by chance.

We have besides, in what is generally classed as a manuscript, a
reasonable although disputed evidence of an elementary stage of printing;
I mean the _Codex Argenteus_ (or _Silver Book_) of Upsala, which contains
a portion of the gospels in Mesogothic, supposed to be of the fourth or
fifth century, the work of Ulfilas. In this codex the first lines of each
gospel and of the Lord's Prayer are in large gold letters, apparently
printed by a stamp, in the manner of a bookbinder, as there are
indentations on the back of the vellum. The small letters are written in
silver. The whole is on a light purple or violet colored vellum.

Having said enough, I think, of the ancients' knowledge of type-forms and
printing materials, I pass on to the recognized establishments of the art
in the fifteenth century; for, whatever knowledge the ancients had
of printing, it would appear to have yielded no immediate fruits to
posterity.

But before I proceed to modern times, I am bound to note that the
Chinese, who seem to have been many centuries in advance of Europe in
most of the industral arts, are supposed to have practised
block-printing, just as they do now, more than a thousand years ago. Nor
does the complicated nature of their written language, which consists of
more than one hundred thousand word-signs, admit of any readier mode. But
they print, or rather rub off, impressions with such speed--seven
hundred sheets per hour--that, until the introduction of steam, they far
outstripped Europeans. Gibbon, it will be remembered, regrets that the
emperor Justinian, who lived in the sixth century, did not introduce the
art of printing from the Chinese, instead of their silk manufacture.

Block-printing ushered in the great epoch; and the first dawn of it
in Europe seems to have been single prints of saints and scriptural
subjects, with a line or two of description engraved on the same wooden
plate. These are for the most part lost; but there is one in existence,
large and exceedingly fine, of St. Christopher, with two lines of
inscription, dated 1423, believed to have been printed with the ordinary
printing-press. It was found in the library of a monastery near Augsburg,
and is therefore presumed to be of German execution. Till lately this was
the earliest-dated evidence of block-printing known; but there has since
been discovered at Malines, and deposited at Brussels, a wood-cut
of similar character, but assumed to be Dutch or Flemish, dated
"MCCCCXVIII"; and though there seems no reason to doubt the genuineness
of the cut, it is asserted that the date bears evidence of having been
tampered with.

There is a vague tradition, depending entirely on the assertion of a
writer named Papillon, not a very reliable authority, which would give
the invention of wood-cut-printing to Venice, and at a very early period.
He asserts that he once saw a set of eight prints, depicting the deeds
of Alexander the Great, each described in verse, which were engraved in
relief, and printed by a brother and sister named Cunio, at Ravenna,
in 1285. But though the assertion is accredited by Mr. Ottley, it is
generally disbelieved.

There is reason to suppose that playing-cards, from wooden blocks, were
produced at Venice long before the block-books, even as early as 1250;
but there is no positive evidence that they were printed; and some insist
that they were produced either by friction or stencil-plates. It seems,
however, by no means unlikely that cards, which were in most extensive
use in the Middle Ages, should, for the sake of cheapness, have been
printed quite as early, if not earlier, than even figures of saints; and
the same artists are presumed to have produced both.

From single prints, with letter-press inscriptions, the next stage, that
of a series of prints accompanied by letter-press, was obvious. Such are
our first recognized block-books, among which are the Apocalypse, and the
_Biblia Pauperum_ (or _Poor Man's Bible_), supposed to have been printed
at Haarlem by Laurence Koster, between 1420 and 1430; I say supposed,
because we have no positive evidence either of the person, place, or
date; and Erasmus, who was born at Rotterdam in 1467, and always ready
to advance the honor of his country, is silent on the subject. We rely
chiefly upon the testimony of Ulric Zell, an eminent printer of Cologne,
who is quoted in the _Cologne Chronicle_ of 1499, and Hadrian Junius, a
Dutch historian of repute, who wrote in the next century. Both agree in
ascribing the invention of book-printing from wooden blocks, as well as
the first germ of movable wood and metallic type printing, to Haarlem;
and Junius adds the name of Laurence Koster. His surname of Koster is
derived from his office, which was that of custodian, sexton, or warden
of the Cathedral Church of Haarlem. The story told of the accident by
which the discovery was made is as follows:

Koster, as he was one day walking in a wood adjoining the city, about the
year 1420, cut some letters on the bark of a beech tree, from which he
took impressions on paper for the amusement of his brother-in-law's
children. The idea then struck him of enlarging their application;
and, being a man of an ingenious turn, he invented a thicker and more
tenacious ink than was in common use, which blotted, and began to print
figures from wooden tablets or blocks, to which he added several lines of
letters, first solid, and then separate or movable. These wooden types
are said to have been fastened together with string.

One thing seems pretty clear, which is, that, whether or not Koster was
the printer, the first block-books were produced somewhere in Holland, as
several are in Dutch, a language seldom, if ever, printed out of its own
country. They were generally printed in light-brown ink, like a sepia
drawing, which, I think, was adopted with a view to their being
colored--a condition in which we find the greater part of them. When
these prints were colored they presented very much the appearance of the
Low Country stained-glass windows.

Block-books continued to be printed and reprinted, first in Holland and
afterward in Germany, with considerable activity, for twenty or thirty
years, during which period we had several editions of the _Biblia
Pauperum_, the _Ars Moriendi_ (or _Art of Dying),_ the _Speculum Humanae
Salvationis_, and many others, chiefly devoted to the promulgation of
scripture history. The earliest ones are printed, or rather transferred
by friction--and therefore on one side only of the paper--entirely from
solid blocks; later on, some portions were printed with movable types of
wood; and at last the letter-press was entirely of movable metal types.
Junius says that Koster by degrees exchanged his wooden types for leaden
ones, and these for pewter; and I will add that it is not unlikely they
may have been cast in lead or pewter plates from the wooden blocks, as
metal-casting was well understood at the time.

The pretensions of Haarlem and Koster have for more than a century been a
matter of fierce controversy; and there have been upward of one hundred
and fifty volumes written for or against, without any approach to a
satisfactory decision. This one thing is certain, that, whether or not we
owe the first idea of movable type to Laurence Koster or to Haarlem, we
do not owe to the period any very marked use of it; that was reserved for
a later day.

There is a story current, dependent on the authority of Junius, that
Koster's principal workman, assumed to be Hans or John Faust--and some,
to reconcile improbabilities, even say John Gutenberg--who had been sworn
to secrecy, decamped one Christmas Eve, after the death of Koster, while
the family were at church, taking with him types and printing apparatus
and, after short sojourns at Amsterdam and Cologne, got to Mainz or
Mayence with them, and there introduced printing. He is said by Junius
to have printed, about the year 1442--that is, two years after Koster's
death--the _Doctrinale_ of Alexander Gallus and the _Tracts_ of Peter of
Spain, with the very types which Koster made use of in Haarlem; but as no
volume of this kind has ever been discovered, nor any trace of one, the
entire story is generally regarded as apocryphal. Laurence Koster died
in 1440, at the age of seventy; therefore any printing attributed to him
must be within that period.

What has hitherto been advanced proves only that mankind had walked for
many centuries on the borders of the two great inventions, chalcography
and typography, without having fully and practically discovered either of
them.

We now come to the great epoch of printing--I mean the complete
introduction, if not actually the first invention, of movable metal
or fusile types. This took place at Mainz, in or before 1450, and the
general consent of Europe assigns the credit of it to Gutenberg. Of a man
who has conferred such vast obligations on all succeeding ages, it may be
desirable to say a few words.

John Gutenberg was born at Mainz in 1397, of a patrician and rather
wealthy family. He left his native city, it is said, because implicated
in an insurrection of the citizens against the nobility, and settled
at Strasburg, where, in 1427, we find him an established merchant, and
sustaining a suit of breach of promise brought against him by a lady
named Ann of the Iron Door, whom he afterward married. While resident
here, and before 1439, his attention appears to have been actively
directed to the art of printing, as we learn by a legal document of the
time, found of late years in the archives of Strasburg. He is there
stated to have entered into an engagement with three persons, named
Dreizehn, Riffe, and Heilmann, to reveal to them "a secret art of
printing which he had lately discovered," and to take them into
partnership for five years, upon the payment of certain sums.

The death of Dreizehn before he had paid up all his instalments led to a
suit on the part of his relations, which ended in Gutenberg's favor. In
the course of the evidence one of the witnesses, a goldsmith, deposed to
having received from Gutenberg three or four years previously--that
is, about 1435--upward of three hundred florins for materials used in
printing. Other witnesses proved the anxiety that Gutenberg had shown to
have four pages of type distributed which appear to have been screwed up
in chase, and lying on a press on the deceased's premises.

This would be evidence that Gutenberg had arrived at a knowledge of
movable types, either of wood or metal, and probably of both, before
1440; and, had it not been for the rupture of the partnership before
anything had been printed by the new process, Strasburg might have
claimed the honor which is now given to Mainz.

Soon after this--it is supposed in 1444--Gutenberg returned to his native
city, by leave of the town council, which he was obliged to ask, bringing
with him all his materials. In 1446 he entered into a partnership with
John Faust--a wealthy and skilful goldsmith and engraver--who
engaged, upon being taught the secrets of the art and admitted into a
participation of the profits, to advance the necessary funds, which he
did to the extent of two thousand two hundred florins. Goldsmiths, it
should be borne in mind, were then the great artists in all kinds of
metal work, and extremely skilful in modelling, engraving, and casting,
which were exactly the arts required for type-founding.

The new partnership immediately commenced operations, hired a house
called Zumjungen, and took into their employ Peter Schoeffer, who had
been Faust's apprentice, as their assistant. Faust is supposed to have
employed himself in cutting the type, which is an extremely slow process,
till Peter Schoeffer, afterward his son-in-law, suggested an improved
mode of casting it in copper matrices struck by steel punches, pretty
much in the same manner as was till recently practised throughout Europe.
The firm had for some time previously adopted a method of casting type in
moulds of plaster, which was a tedious process, as every letter required
a new mould.

Although to Gutenberg are undoubtedly due all the main features of
metal-type printing, yet we owe, perhaps, to the practical skill of
Faust, and the taste of Schoeffer, who was an accomplished penman, the
exquisite finish and perfection with which their first joint effort came
forth to the world. This was a Latin Vulgate, printed in a large cut
metal type, and commonly called the Mazarin Bible, because the first copy
known to bibliographers was found in the library of Cardinal Mazarin.
It consists of six hundred and forty-one leaves, forming two, sometimes
four, large volumes in folio; some copies on paper of beautiful texture,
some on vellum. It was without date or names of the printers, as it was
evidently intended to present the appearance of a manuscript; but it is
supposed, on good evidence, to have been printed between 1450 and 1455,
and it is not improbable the volumes were all that time, that is,
five years, and some say more, at press; for we know, by certain
technicalities, that every page was printed off singly.

These precious volumes, as splendid as they are wonderful, have excited
the admiration of all beholders. The sharpness and elegant uniformity of
the type, the lustre of the ink, and the purity of the paper leave that
first great monument of the typographic art unsurpassed by any subsequent
effort; nor could it be exceeded with all the appliances of the present
day.

"It is a striking circumstance," says Mr. Hallam, "that the high-minded
inventors of this great art tried, at the very outset, so bold a flight
as the printing of an entire Bible, and executed it with astonishing
success. It was Minerva leaping on earth in her divine strength and
radiant armor, ready, at the moment of her nativity, to subdue and
destroy her enemies."

There is a curious story current about this Bible, which, as it is
connected with a popular fiction, I will venture to repeat. It is that
Faust went to Paris with some of his Bibles for sale, one of which,
printed on vellum and richly illuminated, he sold to the King for seven
hundred and fifty crowns, and another to the Archbishop of Paris for
three hundred crowns, and to the poorer clergy and the laity copies on
paper as low as fifty crowns, and even less. Faust does not appear to
have disclosed the secret of how they were produced, and probably let it
be supposed that they were manuscript; for the aim of the first printers
was to make their books equal in beauty to the finest manuscripts, and
as far as possible undistinguishable from them, to which end the large
capitals and decorations were filled in by hand.

The Archbishop, proud of his purchase, showed it to the King, who,
comparing it with his own, found with surprise that they tallied so
exactly in every respect, excepting the illuminated ornaments, as
convinced them that they were produced by some other art than
transcription; and on further inquiry they found that Faust had sold
a considerable number exactly similar. Orders, therefore, were given
without delay to apprehend and prosecute him as a practitioner of the
black art in multiplying Holy Writ by aid of the devil. Hence arose the
popular fiction of the Devil and Dr. Faustus, which, under different
phases, has found its way into every country in Europe, and probably gave
rise to Goethe's celebrated drama.

In 1455, as we find by a notarial document, dated November 6th of that
year, Faust separated from Gutenberg, and successfully instituted
proceedings against him for money advanced. Gutenberg, who had exhausted
all his means in bringing his invention to maturity, was obliged to
mortgage and in the end surrender all his materials, and, it should seem,
his printed stock. His impoverishment may easily be accounted for when we
are told, as a received fact, that before the first four sheets of his
Bible were completed he had already expended four thousand crowns upon
it--a large sum in those days. Of this his then wealthier partner reaped
all the subsequent advantage.

After this period, Faust, and his son-in-law, Peter Schoeffer, in
possession of the materials, printed on their own account, and, within
eighteen months of their separation from Gutenberg, produced the
celebrated Latin Psalter of 1457, the first book in any country which
bears a complete imprint--that is, the name of the printer, place, and
date. This magnificent volume, of which the whole edition was printed on
vellum, is now even rarer than the Mazarin Bible, and of extraordinary
value; the letters are very large and bold, cast in metal type, and the
ornamental initials are beautifully cut in wood.

Two years later, that is, in 1459, Faust and Schoeffer produced an
almost fac-simile reprint of the Psalter, and in the same year _Durandi
Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_, the latter with an entirely new font of
metal type--the first cast from Schoeffer's punches--which some, in the
erroneous belief that the Psalter was printed from wooden types, have
asserted to be the first dated book printed with metal type. Then
followed, in 1460, the _Constitutiones Clementis V_, a handsome folio,
and in 1462 their famous Latin Bible, the first one with a date.

In the mean time, Gutenberg, undaunted by the loss of all that had cost
him so many years of unremitted application and his whole fortune, began
afresh; and this time, it should seem, with better success, as we find
him, in 1459, undertaking to present, for certain considerations, all the
books he had then printed, or might thereafter print, to a convent where
his sister was a nun. No book, however, has yet been discovered bearing
the name of Gutenberg; and we can only guess what came from his press by
a peculiarity of type, of which, after the first Bible, the most marked
is the famous _Catholicon_, dated 1460--a kind of universal dictionary,
the germ of all future cyclopaedias, and which became so popular that
more than forty editions were printed of it in as many years. In 1465
Gutenberg retired from printing, being appointed to a lucrative office at
the court of the Archbishop of Mainz, and in 1467 he died.

And here we take leave of Gutenberg, with admiration for his patience,
his perseverance, and his self-sacrifice in a cause which has produced
such glorious fruits. He was one of those noble spirits who are endowed
with a perception of what is good, and pursue it independent of worldly
considerations. Posterity has done him tardy justice in erecting a marble
monument to his memory and establishing a jubilee, which gave rise to one
of the most touching of Mendelssohn's compositions.

By this time the secret had transpired to the neighboring states, and
Mentelin, of Strasburg, and Pfister, or Bamberg, were, before the
beginning of 1462, in full activity. Indeed, Pfister is, by some, thought
to have printed before 1460; and his finely executed Latin Bible, in cast
type, was for many years regarded as the first.

At this critical period, when the art was reaching its zenith, the
operations of the Mainz printers were suddenly brought to a standstill
by the siege and capture of the city in 1462. The occasion of this was a
fierce dispute between the Pope and the people as to who had the right of
appointment to the archbishopric, lately become vacant. The original hive
of workmen dispersed to other states, and by degrees the mysteries of the
art became spread over the civilized world. Such, indeed, was the fame
printing had acquired, and its manifest importance, that every crowned
head sought to introduce it into his kingdom, and welcomed the fugitives.
Within a few years of this period the art had been carried by the
scattered German workmen into Italy, France, Spain, and Switzerland; and
before the close of the fifteenth century it was practised in more than
two hundred twenty different places.

Before entering upon the history of printing in England, I will take
leave to call your attention to a few prominent facts connected with its
progress abroad, as well as to some points of its early condition which
could not be conveniently introduced in chronological order. All the
books printed previously to 1465 are in the Gothic, or black letter,
which still remained the favorite in Germany and the Low Countries long
after the Italians introduced their beautiful Roman letter. The first
books in which any Greek type occurs are Cicero's _Offices_, printed
by Faust and Schoeffer in 1465, directly after the resumption of their
establishment; and _Lactantius_, printed the same year by Sweynheim and
Pannartz, in the monastery of Soubiaco at Rome. The first book printed
entirely in Greek was Constantine Lascar's _Greek Grammar_, Milan, 1476.

One of the earliest of the Italian books, and, to use the words of
Dr. Dibdin, perhaps the most notorious volume in existence, was the
celebrated Boccaccio, printed at Venice by Valdarfer in 1471. This book
deserves particular mention, because of an extraordinary contest which
once took place for its possession between two wealthy bibliomaniacs. It
was a small black-letter folio, in faded yellow morocco, and supposed
to be unique. Its history is this: In the early part of the eighteenth
century it had come accidentally into the possession of a London
bookseller, who successively offered it to Harley, Earl of Oxford, and
to Lord Sunderland; then the two principal collectors, for one hundred
guineas; but both were staggered at the price and higgled about the
purchase. An ancestor of the late Duke of Roxburghe, whom nobody dreamed
of as a collector, hearing of the book, secured it, and then invited the
two noblemen to dinner, with the view of parading his trophy. In due
course he led the conversation to the book, and, after letting them
expatiate on its rarity, told them he thought he had a copy in his
bookcase, which they emphatically declared to be impossible, and
challenged him to produce it. On producing the book, about the purchase
of which they had only been temporizing, they were not a little
chagrined.

This same copy made its appearance again, half a century later, at the
Duke of Roxburghe's sale in 1812, a time when bibliomania was at its
height. Loud notes of preparation foretold that it would sell for a
considerable sum; five hundred and even one thousand guineas were
guessed, as it was known that Lord Spencer, the Duke of Devonshire, and
the Marquis of Blandford were all bent on its possession, but nobody
anticipated the extravagant sum it was to realize. After a very spirited
competition, it was knocked down to the Marquis of Blandford for two
thousand sixty pounds. This book was resold at the Marquis of Blandford's
sale, in 1819, for eight hundred seventy-five guineas, and passed to Lord
Spencer, in whose extraordinary library it now reposes.

Before the commencement of the sixteenth century, that is, within forty
or fifty years of the invention of printing with movable type, upward of
twenty thousand volumes had issued from at least a thousand different
presses. All the principal Latin classics, many of the Greek, and upward
of two hundred fifty editions of the Bible, or parts of the Bible, had
appeared.

One of the most active and enterprising of the early printers was Anthony
Koburger of Nuremberg, an accomplished scholar, who began there in 1472,
and before the year 1500 had printed thirteen large editions of the Bible
in folio, and a prodigious number of other books. He kept twenty-four
presses at work, employing one hundred workmen, and had sixteen shops for
the sale of books in the principal cities of Germany, besides factors
and agents all over Europe. He printed, in 1493, that grand volume, the
_Nuremberg Chronicle_, which is illustrated with upward of one thousand
woodcuts by Michael Wohlgemuth, the master of Albert Duerer, and is
curious as being one of the first books in which cross-hatchings occur in
wood-engraving.

The sixteenth century opened with another invention in type, the Italic,
which was beautifully exemplified in a pocket edition of Vergil, the
first of a portable series of classical works commenced in 1501 at Venice
by the celebrated Aldus Manutius, who, after some years of preparation,
had entered actively on his career as a printer in 1494, and deservedly
ranks as one of the best scholars of any age.

Then came the Giunti, the learned family of the Stephenses, of whom
Robert is accredited as the author of the present divisions of our
New Testament into chapters, and Henry, author of the great Greek
_Thesaurus_, the most valuable Greek lexicon ever published. To the
opprobrium of the age, he died in an almshouse.

Among many others immortalized by their successful contributions to the
great cause we must not forget the Plantins, whose memories are still so
cherished at Antwerp that their printing establishment remains to this
day untouched, just as it was left two centuries ago, with all the
freshness of a chamber in Pompeii, the type and chases of their famous
Polyglot lying about, as if the workmen had but just left the office.

The accordance of the art of printing with the spirit of the times which
gave it birth must be regarded as singularly providential. The Protestant
Reformation in Germany was brought about by Luther's accidentally
meeting, in a monastic library, with one of Gutenberg's printed Latin
Bibles, when at the age of twenty. "A mighty change," says Luther, "then
came over me," and all his subsequent efforts are to be attributed to
that event. His recognition of the importance of printing is given in
these words: "Printing is the best and highest gift, the _summum et
postremum donum_ by which God advanceth the Gospel. Thanks be to God that
it hath come at last. Holy fathers now at rest would rejoice to see this
day of the revealed Gospel."

William Caxton, by common consent, is the introducer of the art of
printing into England. He was born about 1422, in Kent, and received
what was then thought a liberal education. His father must have been in
respectable circumstances, as there was at that time a law in full force
prohibiting any youth from being apprenticed to trade whose parent was
not possessed of a certain rental in land. In his eighteenth year Caxton
was apprenticed to Robert Large, an eminent London mercer, who in 1430
was sheriff and in 1439 Lord Mayor of London. At his death, in 1441,
he bequeathed Caxton a legacy of twenty marks--a large sum in those
days--and an honorable testimony to his fidelity and integrity. Soon
after this the Mercers' Company appointed him their agent in the Low
Countries, in which employment he spent twenty-three years.

In 1464 he was one of two commissioners officially employed by Edward IV
to negotiate a commercial treaty with Philip of Burgundy; and in 1468,
when the King's sister, Margaret of York, married Charles of Burgundy,
called "the Bold," he attached himself to their household, probably
in some literary capacity, as in the next year we find him busied in
translating at her request. During the greater part of this long period
he was residing or travelling in the midst of the countries where the new
art of printing was the great subject of interest, and would naturally
take some measures to acquaint himself with it. Indeed, it has been said
that he had a secret commission from Edward IV to learn the art, and to
bribe some of the foreign workmen into England. Be this as it may, we
know that Caxton acquired a complete knowledge of it while abroad, for
he tells us so, and that he had printed at Cologne the _Recueil des
Histoires de Troye_ (or _Romance History of Troy_), in 1465, and in 1472
an English edition of the same, translated by himself. These two early
productions are remarkable as being the first books printed in either the
French or English language[26]. The English edition was sold at the Duke
of Roxburghe's sale for one thousand sixty pounds, and is now in the
possession of the Duke of Devonshire.

Caxton returned to England about 1474, bringing with him presses and
types, and established himself in one of the chapels of Westminster
Abbey, called the Eleemosynary, Almondry, or Arm'ry, supposed to have
been on the site of Henry VII's chapel. A printer would naturally resort
to the abbey for patronage, as in those days it was the head-quarters
of learning as well as of religion. Before the foundation of grammar
schools, there was usually a _scholasticus_ attached to the abbeys and
cathedral churches, who directed and superintended the education of the
neighboring nobility and gentry. He was, besides, one of the members of
the _scriptorium_, a large establishment within the abbey, where school
and other books used to be written.

The first book Caxton printed, after he returned to England and
established himself at the Almonry, is supposed to be _The Game and Play
of Chesse_, dated 1474. But some have raised doubts whether this was
printed in England, as there is no actual evidence of it. One of the
arguments is that the type is exactly the same as what he had previously
used at Cologne; but this is no evidence at all, as both the type and
paper used in England for many years came from Cologne, and there is no
doubt that Caxton brought some with him. A second edition of the book of
chess, with woodcuts, was printed two or three years later, and this is
generally admitted to have been printed in England.

The first book with an unmistakable imprint was his _Dictes and Sayings
of Philosophers_, which had been translated for him by the gallant but
unfortunate Lord Rivers, who was murdered in Pomfret castle by order of
Richard III. The colophon of this states that it was printed in the Abbey
of Westminster in 1477. He appears to have printed but one single volume
upon vellum, which is _The Doctrynal of Sapience_, 1489, of which a copy,
formerly in the King's Library at Windsor, is now in the British Museum.
This is a very interesting work as connected with Caxton, being entirely
translated by himself into English verse. It is an allegorical fiction,
in which the whole system of literature and science comes under
consideration.

Caxton died in 1491, after having produced, within twenty years of his
active career, more than fifty volumes of mark, including Chaucer, Gower,
Lydgate, and his own _Chronicle_ of England. Before Caxton's time the
youths of England were supplied with their school-books and their
reading, which was necessarily very limited, by the Company of
Stationers, or text-writers, who wrote and sold, by an exclusive royal
privilege, the school-books then in use. These were chiefly the A B Cs,
(called _Absies_), the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the address to the
Virgin Mary, called _Ave Maria_.

The location of these stationers was in the neighborhood of St. Paul's
Cathedral, whence arose the names Paternoster Row, Creed Lane, Amen
Corner, and Ave Maria Lane. Manuscripts of a higher order, that is, in
the form of books, were mostly supplied by the monks, and were scarcely
accessible to any but the wealthy, from their extreme cost. Thus, a
Chaucer, which may now be bought for a few shillings, then cost more than
a hundred pounds; and we read of two hundred sheep and ten quarters of
wheat being given for a volume of homilies.

Minstrels, instead of books, were in early times the principal medium of
communication between authors and the public; they wandered up and down
the country, chanting, singing, or reciting, according to the taste of
their customers, and had certain privileges of entertainment in the halls
of the nobility.

It may be wondered that Caxton, like many of the foreign printers, did
not begin with, or at least some time during his career print, the
Scriptures, especially as Wycliffe's translation had already been made.
But there were good reasons. Religious persecution ran high, and the
clergy were extremely jealous of the propagation of the Scriptures among
the people. Knighton had denounced the reading of the Bible, lamenting
lest this jewel of the Church, hitherto the exclusive property of the
clergy and divines, should be made common to the laity; and Archbishop
Arundel had issued an enactment that no part of the Scriptures in English
should be read, either in public or private, or be thereafter translated,
under pain of the greater excommunication. The Star Chamber, too, was big
with terrors. A little later, Erasmus' edition of the New Testament was
forbidden at Cambridge; and in the county of Surrey the Vicar of Croydon
said from the pulpit, "We must root out printing, or printing will root
out us."

Winkin de Worde, who had come in his youth with Caxton to England and
continued with him in the superintendence of his office to the day of his
death, succeeded to the business, and conducted it with great spirit
for the next forty years. He began by entirely remodelling his fonts
of Gothic type, and introduced both Roman and Italic; became his own
founder, instead of importing type from the Low Countries; promoted the
manufacture of paper in this country; and such was his activity that he
printed the extraordinary number of four hundred eight different works.
He deserves, perhaps, more praise than he has ever received for the
important part he played in establishing and advancing the art in
England.

But no one of our early printers deserves more grateful remembrance than
Richard Grafton, who, in 1537, was the first publisher of the Bible in
England. I say in England, because the first Bible, known as Coverdale's,
and several editions of the Testament, translated by Tyndale, had been
previously printed abroad in secrecy. Grafton's first edition of the
Bible was a reprint of Coverdale and Tyndale's translation, with slight
alterations, by one who assumed the name of Thomas Matthew, but whose
real name was John Rogers, then Prebendary of St. Paul's, and afterward
burned as a heretic in Smithfield. Even this was printed secretly abroad,
nobody yet knows where, and did not have Grafton's name attached to it
till the King had granted him a license under the privy seal. Though this
year, 1537, has by the annalists of the Bible been called the first year
of triumph, on account of the King's license, yet Bibles were still apt
to be dangerous things to all concerned; and what was permitted one day
was not unlikely, by a change in religion or policy, to be interdicted
the next with severe visitations.

Although Henry VIII had recently completed his breach with Rome and
been excommunicated, he alternately punished the religious movements of
Protestants and Catholics, according to his caprice; and it was but a few
years previously that the reading of the Bible had been prohibited by
act of parliament, that men had been burned at the stake for having even
fragments of it in their possession, and that Tyndale's translation of
the new Testament had been bought up and publicly burned (1534) by order
of Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London; and even as late as May, 1536,
the reading of the sacred volume had been strictly forbidden.

Grafton, therefore, must have been a bold man to face the danger. Thus,
in 1538, when a new edition of the Bible, commonly called the "Great
Bible," afterward published in 1539, was secretly printing in Paris at
the instance of Lord Cromwell, under the superintendence of Grafton,
Whitchurch, and Coverdale, the French inquisitors of the faith
interfered, charging them with heresy, and they were fortunate in making
their escape to England.

Shortly after the death of Caxton's patron, Lord Cromwell, Grafton was
imprisoned for the double offence of printing Matthew's Bible and the
Great Bible, notwithstanding the King's license; and though after a while
released, he was again imprisoned in the reign of Philip and Mary on
account of his Protestant principles; and, after all his services to
religion and literature, died in poverty in 1572.

Printing was now spreading all over England. It had already begun at
Oxford in 1478--some say earlier--at Cambridge soon after, although the
first dated work is 1521; at St. Albans in 1480; York in 1509; and other
places by degrees.

Printing did not reach Scotland till 1507, and then but imperfectly, and
Ireland not till 1551, owing, it is said, to the jealousy with which it
was regarded by the priesthood.

We will now take a rapid survey of the vast strides printing has made of
late years in England, and therewith close. The principal movements have
been in stereotyping, electrotyping, the improvement of presses, and the
application of steam power. Stereotyping is the transfer of pages of
movable type into solid metal plates, by the medium of moulds formed of
plaster of Paris, _papier-mache,_ gutta-percha, or other substances. This
art is supposed to have been invented, in or about 1725, by William Ged,
a goldsmith of Edinburgh. A small capitalist, who had engaged to embark
with him, withdrawing from the speculation in alarm, he accepted
overtures from a Mr. William Fenner, and in 1729 came to London. Here
he obtained three partners, in conjunction with whom he entered into a
contract with the University of Cambridge for stereotyping Bibles and
prayer-books. But the workmen, fearing that stereotyping would eventually
ruin their trade, purposely made errors, and, when their masters were
absent, battered the type, so that the only two prayer-books completed
were suppressed by authority, and the plates destroyed. Upon this the
art got into disrepute, and Ged, after much ill-treatment, returned to
Edinburgh, impoverished and disheartened. Here his friends, desirous that
a memorial of his art should be published, entered into a subscription to
defray the expense; and a Sallust, printed in 1736, and composed and cast
in the night-time to avoid the jealous opposition of the workmen, is now
the principal evidence of his claim to the invention.

But the time had not come; for without a very large demand, such as could
not exist in those days, stereotyping would be of no advantage. Books
which sell by hundreds of thousands, and are constantly reprinting, such
as Bibles, prayer-books, school-books, Shakespeares, Bunyans, Robinson
Crusoes, Uncle Toms, and very popular authors and editions, will pay for
stereotyping; but for small numbers it is a loss. After the invention had
been neglected long enough to be forgotten, Earl Stanhope, who had for
several years devoted himself earnestly to the subject, and made many
experiments, resuscitated it, in a very perfect manner, in 1803; and his
printer, Mr. Wilson, sold the secret to both universities and to most of
the leading printers. To the art of stereotyping the public is mainly
indebted for cheap literature, for when the plates are once produced the
chief expense is disposed of.

Something akin to stereotyping is another method of printing, called
logography, invented by John Walter of the London _Times_, in 1783, and
for which he took out a patent. This means a system of printing from type
cast in words instead of single letters, which it was thought would save
time and corrections when applied to newspapers, but it was not found to
answer. A joke of the time was a supposed order to the type-founder for
some words of frequent occurrence, which ran thus: "Please send me a
hundredweight, sorted, of murder, fire, dreadful robbery, atrocious
outrage, fearful calamity, alarming explosion, melancholy accident; an
assortment of honourable member, whig, tory, hot, cold, wet, dry; half
a hundred weight, made up in pounds, of butter, cheese, beef, mutton,
tripe, mustard, soap, rain, etc., and a few devils, angels, women,
groans, hisses, etc." This method of printing did not succeed; for if
twenty-four letters will give six hundred sextillions of combinations, no
printing-office could keep a sufficient assortment of even popular words.

[Footnote 1: See Vol 1, 8]

[Footnote 2: See accompanying fac-simile of a page of the English
edition--a reproduction as faithful as possible in text, color, texture
of paper, etc.]



JOHN HUNYADY REPULSES THE TURKS[1]

A.D. 1440-1456

ARMINIUS VAMBERY


From the time (1354) when the Turks took Gallipoli and secured their
first dominion in Europe, the Ottoman power on that side of the
Hellespont was gradually increased. In 1360 Amurath I crossed from Asia
Minor, ravaged an extensive district, and took Adrianople, which he made
the first seat of his royalty and the first shrine of Mahometanism in
Europe. He next turned toward Bulgaria and Servia, where in the warlike
Slavonic tribes he found far stronger foes than the Greek victims of
earlier Turkish conquests.

Pope Urban V preached a crusade against the Turks; and Servia, Hungary,
Bosnia, and Wallachia leagued themselves to drive the Ottomans out of
Europe. Amurath defeated them and added new territory to his previous
acquisitions. A peace was made in 1376, but a new though fruitless
attempt of the Slavonic peoples against him gave Amurath a pretext for
further assault upon southeastern Europe. In 1389 he conquered and
annexed Bulgaria and subjugated the Servians. In the same year Amurath
was assassinated.

Bajazet I, the son and successor of Amurath, still further extended
the Turkish conquests. Under Bajazet's son, Mahomet I (1413-1421),
comparative peace prevailed; but his son, Amurath II, rekindled the
flames of war. A strong combination, including, with other peoples,
the Hungarians and Poles, was made against him. In the struggle that
followed, and which for a time promised the complete expulsion of the
Turks from Europe, the great leader was the Hungarian, John Hunyady, born
in 1388. According to some writers, he was a Wallach and the son of a
common soldier. Creasy calls him "the illegitimate son of Sigismund, King
of Hungary, and the fair Elizabeth Morsiney." With him appeared a new
spirit, such as the Ottomans up to that time could not have expected to
encounter in that part of Europe. In Vambery's narrative we have the
authority of Hungary's greatest historian for the leading events in the
life of her greatest hero.

In Europe a new power pulsating with youthful life had arrived from
somewhere in the interior of Asia with the intention of conquering the
world. This power was the Turk--not merely a single nation, but a whole
group of peoples clustered round a nation, inspired by one single idea
which urged them ever forward--"There is no god but God, and Mahomet is
the apostle of God."

The Mahometan flood already beat upon the bounds of Catholic Christendom,
in the forefront of which stood Hungary. Hungary's King, Sigismund, was
able for a moment in 1396 to unite the nations of Europe against the
common danger, but the proud array of mail-clad knights were swept away
like chaff before the steady ranks of the janizaries.

And herewith began the long series of desolating inroads into Hungary,
for the Turks were wont to suck the blood of the nation they had marked
down as their prey. They took the country by surprise, secretly,
suddenly, like a summer storm, appearing in overwhelming numbers,
burning, murdering, robbing, especially men in the hopes of a rich
ransom, or children whom they might bring up as Mahometans and
janizaries. This body, the flower of the Turkish armies, owed its origin
for the most part to the Christian children thus stolen from their
parents and their country. This infantry of the janizaries was the first
standing army in Europe. Living constantly together under a common
discipline, like the inmates of a cloister, they rushed blindly forward
to the cry of "God and his Prophet!" like some splendid, powerful wild
beast eager for prey. The Turkish sultans published the proud order:
"Forward! Let us conquer the whole world; wheresoever we tie up our
horses' heads, that land is our own."

To resist such a nation, that would not listen to negotiation, but only
thirsted for war and conquest, seemed already an impossibility. Europe
trembled with fear at the reports of the formidable attacks designed
against her, and listened anxiously for news from distant Hungary, which
lay, so to say, in the lion's very mouth.

Against such an enemy a soldier of the modern type was useless, one who
slays only in defence of his own life and at the word of command, whose
force consists in the high development of the military art and the
murderous instruments of modern technical science. What was wanted was a
heroic soul, inspired by a burning faith like to that which impelled the
Mahometan soldier. This heroic soul, this burning faith, united to
the tenacious energy of youth, were all found united in John Hunyady,
accompanied withal by a singular talent for leadership in war. He could
not rely for support upon the haughty magnates who could trace their
descent back for centuries and despised the parvenu with a shorter
pedigree and a smaller estate. He was consequently obliged to cast in
his lot with the mass of the lesser nobility, individually weaker, it is
true, but not deficient in spirit and a consciousness of their own worth.
Of this class he soon became the idolized leader. Around him gathered the
hitherto latent forces of Hungarian society, especially from Transylvania
and South Hungary and the Great Hungarian Plain, which suffered most from
the incursions of the Turks, and were therefore most impressed with the
necessity of organizing a system of defence. It was these who were the
first to be inspired by Hurvyady's heroic spirit.

Before commencing his career as independent commander he, following
his father's example, attached himself to the court of Sigismund, the
Emperor-king, in whose train he visited the countries of Western Europe,
Germany, England, and Italy, till he at length returned home, his mind
enriched by experience but with the fervor of his first faith unchilled.

When over fifty years old, he repaired at his sovereign's command to the
south of Hungary to organize the resistance to the Turks. At first he
was appointed ban of Severin, and as such had the chief command of the
fortified places built by the Hungarians for the defence of the Lower
Danube. After that he became waywode of Transylvania, the civil and
military governor of the southeastern corner of the Hungarian kingdom.

Before, however, he had reached these dignities he had fought a
succession of battles and skirmishes with such success that for the
fanatical Turkish soldiery his form, nay, his very name, was an object
of terror. It was Hunyady alone whom they sought to slay on the field of
battle, well persuaded that, he once slain, they would easily deal with
the rest of Hungary. Thus in 1442 a Turkish leader, named Mezid Bey,
burst into Transylvania at the head of eighty thousand men in pursuance
of the Sultan's commands, with no other aim than to take Hunyady dead or
alive.

Nor, indeed, did Hunyady keep them waiting for him. He hurried at the
head of his troops to attack the Turkish leader, who was laying siege to
Hermannstadt. Upon this, Mezid Bey, calling his bravest soldiers around
him, described to them once more Hunyady's appearance, his arms, his
dress, his stature, and his horse, that they might certainly recognize
him. "Slay him only," he exclaimed, "and we shall easily deal with the
rest of them; we shall drive them like a flock of sheep into the presence
of our august master."

On that occasion was seen with what self-sacrificing enthusiasm his
soldiers loved their heroic leader. When they learned from their spies
the purpose of the Turks, they took all possible measures to secure his
precious life. One of their number, Simon Kemeny, who bore a striking
resemblance to Hunyady, determined to sacrifice himself for his leader.
He announced that he would put on Hunyady's clothes and armor. The Turks
would then attack him under the belief that he was the celebrated chief,
and while they were thus engaged the real Hunyady would fall upon them
unexpectedly and put them to flight. At first Hunyady would by no means
consent to this plan, as he did not wish to expose Kemeny to such mortal
danger; but at last, seeing the great military advantages likely to
accrue from it, he consented.

And so, indeed, it fell out. As soon as the battle began, the Turks,
perceiving Simon Kemeny in the garb of Hunyady, directed all their force
against him. Kemeny, after a stout defence, fell, together with a great
number of his followers, and the Turks, seeing him fall, set up a general
cry of triumph and exultation. Just at this critical moment they were
hotly attacked in the flank by the genuine Hunyady. Thus attacked in the
very moment when they imagined that they had already gained the day,
the Turks were thrown into confusion and took wildly to flight. Twenty
thousand corpses were left on the battlefield; among them lay Mezid Bey
himself, together with his sons.

Fearful was the rage of the Turkish Sultan when he heard of the defeat
and death of Mezid Bey, and he at once despatched another army against
Hunyady, which like the first numbered eighty thousand men. This time,
however, Hunyady did not let them enter Transylvania, but waited for
them at the pass known as the Iron Gate, among the high mountains on the
southern boundary of Hungary.

The Hungarian army was not more than fifteen thousand men, so that the
Turks were at least five times as strong. But the military genius of
Hunyady made up for the small number of his followers. He posted them in
a strong position in the rough pass, and attacked the enemy in places
where it was impossible for him to make use of his strength. Thus more
than half the Turkish army perished miserably in the battle. Again their
commander-in-chief fell on the field, together with six subordinate
commanders, while two hundred horse-tail standards fell into Hunyady's
hands as trophies of his victory.

These two splendid victories filled all Europe with joy and admiration.
Christendom again breathed freely; for she felt that a champion sent by a
special providence had appeared, who had both the courage and the ability
to meet and to repel the haughty and formidable foe. But Hunyady was not
content with doing so much. He thought that by this time he might
carry the war into the enemy's country. The plan of operations was
exceptionally daring, yet Hunyady had not resolved on it without careful
consideration. In the mean time, through Hunyady's exertions, Wladislaw
III, the young King of Poland, had been elected king of Hungary. Hunyady
gained the new King over to his plans, and by this means secured the
cooeperation of the higher aristocracy and the armed bands which they
were bound to lead into the field at the King's summons. Hunyady counted
besides on the assistance of Europe; in the first place on the popes, who
were zealous advocates of the war against the Mahometans; next on Venice,
which, as the first commercial city and state at that time, had suffered
severe losses owing to the spread of Turkish dominions; on the gallant
Poles, whose King now wore the Hungarian crown; and lastly upon the
peoples of Christendom in general, whose enthusiasm for a war against the
infidels had been quickened by the report of Hunyady's victories. And,
indeed, at his request the Pope sent some small sums of money, the Poles
furnished an auxiliary force, while numerous volunteers from the rest of
Europe flocked to serve under his banner.

Although the assistance thus furnished was comparatively unimportant, it
nevertheless served to increase his zeal for the daring undertaking. He
and his heroic companions were not only proud of defending their own
native country, but felt that they were the champions of all Christendom
against Ottoman aggression, and their religious enthusiasm kept pace with
their patriotism. If they did not get regiments sent to their aid, they
felt that the eyes of all Europe were upon them, ready to grieve at their
possible ill-success, while their victories would be celebrated with the
_Te Deum_ in the cathedrals of every capital in Europe.

The aggressive campaign was commenced without delay; Hunyady's resolves
were at once translated into fact; he would not allow the beaten foe
time to recover breath. His plan was to cross the Danube, and penetrate
through the passes of the Balkan to Philippopolis, at that time the
capital of the Sultan's dominions, where he kept the main body of his
army. About Christmas, a season in which the Turk does not like to fight,
amid heavy snow and severe cold, the Hungarian army of about thirty
thousand men pressed forward. Hunyady marched in advance with the
vanguard of twelve thousand picked men; after him the King and the Pope's
legate, with the rest of the army. The Sultan, however, with a large body
of men had occupied the passes of the Balkans and prevented their further
advance. This impediment, coupled with the cold and severe weather,
depressed the spirits of the troops, worn out with fatigue. Hunyady,
however, raised their spirits by gaining a victory; lighting one night
upon a body of the enemy, twenty thousand in number, he attacked them at
once and after a few hours' struggle succeeded in dispersing them.

Later on he took two large towns with their citadels, and in three
engagements triumphed over three separate divisions of the enemy.
Learning that a still larger body of Turks was attempting to cut off his
communications with the King's army, he attacked that also and put it to
flight. After that he joined his corps with the main army under the King,
and, indeed, none too soon. Sultan Amurath suddenly arrived with the main
body of his forces, which he strongly intrenched in the narrowest passes
of the Balkans. Hunyady saw that these intrenchments could not be forced,
and did all he could to entice his enemy down into the plain. This he
succeeded in doing. In the battle that ensued the King, too, played
a conspicuous part and received a wound. In the end, however, the
Hungarians gained the victory, and the younger brother of the Grand
Vizier was taken prisoner. So much success was sufficient for Hunyady for
the time, especially as the natural obstacles had proved insurmountable.
The Hungarian army returned home in good order, and the young King made
a triumphal entry into his capital, preceded by a crowd of Turkish
prisoners and captured Turkish ensigns. These last trophies of victory
were deposited in the Coronation Church in the fortress of Buda.

And now something happened which had hitherto been deemed incredible:
the Sultan sued for peace--a true believer and a sovereign, from an
"unbelieving giaour." The peace was concluded, and Hungary again became
possessed of those dependent (South Slavonic) provinces which lay between
the territories of the Sultan and the kingdom of Hungary in the narrower
sense of the word. In three short years Hunyady had undone the work of
years on the part of the Turks. The Sultan, however, soon repented of
what he had done, and continually delayed the fulfilment of his promise
to evacuate certain frontier fortresses. For this cause the young King,
especially incited thereto by the Pope, determined to renew the war.
Hunyady at first opposed the King's resolution, and wished to wait; later
on he was gained over to the King's view, and took up the matter with his
whole soul. The opportunity was inviting, for the Sultan with his main
army was engaged somewhere in Asia, and the Venetians promised to prevent
with their fleet his return to Europe across the narrow seas in the
neighborhood of Constantinople.

The Hungarian army, indeed, set out (1444) on its expedition, and,
continually expecting the arrival of the troops of their allies--the
Emperor of Constantinople and the princes of Albania--penetrated ever
farther and farther into the hostile territory. They were to be joined by
their allies at the town of Varna on the shores of the Black Sea. When,
however, the Hungarians had arrived at that town, they found no trace of
their expected allies, but on the contrary learned with certainty that
the Sultan had succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the Venetians, had
brought his army in small boats over into Europe, and was now following
fast on their track.

Thus all hope of aid from allies was at an end; the brave general and his
small Hungarian force had to rely on their own resources, separated as
they were by some weeks' journey from their own country, while the enemy
would be soon upon them in numbers five times their own. Yet, even so,
Hunyady's faith and courage did not desert him. The proverb says, "If thy
sword be short, lengthen it by a step forward." And Hunyady boldly,
but yet with the caution that behooved a careful general, took up his
position before the Sultan's army. Both he and his Hungarians fought with
dauntless courage, availing themselves of every advantage and beating
back every assault. Already victory seemed to be assured. A few hours
after the battle had begun both the Turkish wings had been broken, and
even the Sultan and the brave janizaries were thinking of flight, when
the young King, the Pole Wladislaw, whom Hunyady had adjured by God to
remain in a place of safety until the combat should be decided, was
persuaded by his Polish suite to fling himself, with the small band in
immediate attendance upon him, right on the centre of the janizaries, so
that he too might have a share in the victory and not leave it all
to Hunyady. The janizaries wavered for a moment under this new and
unexpected attack, but, soon perceiving that they had to do with the King
of Hungary, they closed round his band, which had penetrated far into
their ranks. The King's horse was first hamstrung, and, as it fell, the
King's head was severed from his body, stuck upon the point of a spear,
and exposed to the view of both armies. The Hungarians, shocked at the
unexpected sight, wavered, and, feeling themselves lost, began to fly.
All the entreaties and exhortations of Hunyady were in vain. Such was the
confusion that he could be neither seen nor heard, and in a few minutes
the whole Hungarian army was in headlong flight.

Hunyady, left to himself, had also to seek safety in flight. Alone,
deserted by all, he had to make his way from one place of concealment to
another, till after some weeks' wandering he arrived in Hungary. The bad
news had preceded him, and in consequence everything was in confusion.
Again arose that difficult question: Who should be the new king under
such difficult circumstances? The Sultan's army had, however, suffered
so much in the battle of Varna that for the time he left the Hungarians
unmolested.

The nation was disposed to choose for its king the child Ladislaus, son
of King Albert, the predecessor of Wladislaw. The child, however, was in
the power of the neighboring Prince, Frederick, the Archduke of Austria,
who was not disposed to let him go out of his hands without a heavy
ransom. In these circumstances the more powerful nobles in Hungary took
advantage of the confusion to strengthen each his own position at the
expense of the nation. At first the government of the country was
intrusted to a number of captains, but this proved so evidently
disastrous that the better sort of people succeeded in having them
abolished and Hunyady established as sole governor. For all that,
however, Hunyady had a good deal of trouble with the chief aristocrats,
Garay, Czillei, Ujlaki, who, envying the parvenu his sudden promotion and
despising his obscure origin, took up arms to resist his authority. Thus
Hunyady, instead of blunting the edge of his sword upon foreign foes, had
to bridle the insubordination of his own countrymen. Luckily it did not
take long to force the discontented to own the weight of his arm and his
superiority as a military leader.

Order being thus to some extent reestablished at home, Hunyady was again
able to turn his attention to the Turks. He felt that he had in fact
gained the battle of Varna, which was only lost through the jealous humor
of a youthful king; that it behooved him not to stop half way; that it
was his duty to continue offensive operations. But in so doing he had to
rely upon his own proper forces. It is true that he was governor of the
country, but for the purpose of offensive warfare beyond the frontier he
could not gain the consent of the great nobles.

Luckily his private property had enormously increased by this time. The
Hungarian constitution required the King to bestow the estates of such
noblemen as died without male heirs, or had been condemned for any
offence, on such noblemen as had approved themselves valiant defenders
of the country. Now where could be found a more worthy recipient of such
estates than Hunyady, to whom the public treasury was besides a debtor on
account of the sums he disbursed for the constant warfare he maintained
against the Turks? Especially in the south of Hungary a whole series
of lordly estates, many of them belonging to the crown, had come into
Hunyady's hands, either as pledges for the repayment of the money he had
paid his soldiers, or as his own private property.

The yearly revenue arising from these vast estates was employed by
Hunyady, not in personal expenditure, but in the defence of his country.
He himself lived as simply as any of his soldiers, and recognized no
other use of money than as a weapon for the defence of Christendom
against Islam. In the early morning, while all his suite slept, he passed
hours in prayer before the altar in the dimly lighted church, imploring
the help of the Almighty for the attainment of his sole object in
life--the destruction of the Turkish power. At last, 1448, he set out
against the Sultan with an army of twenty-four thousand of his most
trusty soldiers.

This time it was on the frontier of Servia, on the "Field of Blackbirds,"
that Hunyady encountered Sultan Amurath, who had an army of one hundred
and fifty thousand men--again more than five times the number of the
Christians. Hunyady at first withdrew himself into his intrenched camp,
but in a few days felt himself strong enough to engage with the enemy on
the open field. The battle lasted without interruption for two days and a
night. Hunyady himself was several times in deadly peril. Once his horse
was shot under him. He was to be found wherever assistance, support,
encouragement, were needed. At last, on the morning of the third day,
as the Turks, who had received reinforcements, were about to renew the
attack, the Waywode of Wallachia passed over to the side of the Turks.
The Waywode belonged to the Orthodox Eastern Church. He had joined
Hunyady on the way, and his desertion transferred six thousand men from
one side to the other, and decided the battle in favor of the Turks.
The Hungarians, worn out by fatigue, fell into a discouragement, while
Hunyady had no fresh troops to bring up to their support. The battle came
to a sudden end. Seventeen thousand Hungarian corpses strewed the field,
but the loss of the Turks was more than thirty thousand men.

Hunyady, again left to himself, had again to make his escape. At first
he only dismissed his military suite; afterward he separated from his
faithful servant in the hope that separately they might more easily
baffle their pursuers. Next he had to turn his horse adrift, as the poor
animal was incapable of continuing his journey. Thus he made his way
alone and on foot toward the frontiers of his native land. After a while,
looking down from the top of a piece of elevated ground, he perceived a
large body of Turks, from whom he hid himself in a neighboring lake. He
thus escaped this danger, but only to encounter another. At a turn of
the road he came so suddenly upon a party of Turkish plunderers as to be
unable to escape from them, and thus became their prisoner. But the Turks
did not recognize him, and, leaving him in the hands of two of their
number, the rest went on in search of more prey. His two guards soon came
to blows with one another about a heavy gold cross which they had found
on the person of their captive, and, while they were thus quarrelling,
Hunyady suddenly wrenched a sword out of the hand of one of the two Turks
and cut off his head, upon which the other took to flight, and Hunyady
was again free.

In the mean time, however, George, the Prince of Servia, who took part
with the aristocratic malcontents, and who, although a Christian, out of
pure hatred to Hunyady had gone over to the side of the Turks, had given
strict orders that all Hungarian stragglers were to be apprehended and
brought before him. In this way Hunyady fell into the hands of some
Servian peasants, who delivered him to their Prince. Nor did he regain
his liberty without the payment of a heavy ransom, leaving his son
Ladislaus as hostage in his stead.

He thus returned home amid a thousand perils, and with the painful
experience that Europe left him to his own resources to fight as best he
could against the ever-advancing Turks. The dependencies of the Hungarian
crown, Servia and Wallachia--on whose recovery he had spent so much
blood and treasure--instead of supporting him, as might be expected of
Christian countries, threw themselves in a suicidal manner into the arms
of the Turks. They hoped by their ready submission to find favor in the
eyes of the irresistible conquerors, by whom, however, they were a little
later devoured.

After these events Hunyady continued to act as governor or regent of
Hungary for five years more, by which time the young Ladislaus, son of
King Albert, attained his majority. In 1453 Hunyady finally laid down his
dignity as governor, and gave over the power into the hands of the young
King, Ladislaus V, whom Hunyady had first to liberate by force of arms
from his uncle, Frederick of Austria, before he could set him on the
throne of Hungary. The young King, of German origin, had hardly become
emancipated from his guardian when he fell under the influence of his
other uncle, Ulric Czillei. This Czillei was a great nobleman of Styria,
but was withal possessed of large estates in Hungary. As a foreigner and
as a relative of King Sigismund, he had long viewed with an evil eye
Hunyady's elevation. On one occasion Hunyady had to inflict punishment
on him. He consequently now did everything he could to induce the young
King, his nephew, to hate the great captain as he himself did. He sought
to infuse jealousy into his mind and to lead him to believe that Hunyady
aimed at the crown. His slanders found the readier credence in the
mind of the youthful sovereign as he was completely stupefied by an
uninterrupted course of debauchery. At last the King was brought to agree
to a plan for ensnaring the great man who so often jeoparded his life and
his substance in the defence of his country and religion. They summoned
him in the King's name to Vienna, where Ladislaus, as an Austrian prince,
was then staying, with the intention of waylaying and murdering him. But
Hunyady got wind of the whole plot, and when he arrived at the place of
ambush it was at the head of two thousand picked Hungarian warriors. Thus
it was Czillei who fell into the snare. "Wretched creature!" exclaimed
Hunyady; "thou hast fallen into the pit thou diggedst for me; were it not
that I regard the dignity of the King and my own humanity, thou shouldst
suffer a punishment proportioned to thy crime. As it is, I let thee off
this time, but come no more into my sight, or thou shalt pay for it with
thy life."

Such magnanimity, however, did not disarm the hostility of those who
surrounded the King. On the pretence of treason against the King, Hunyady
was deprived of all his offices and all his estates. The document is
still to be seen in the Hungarian state archives, in which the King, led
astray by the jealousies that prevailed among his councillors, represents
every virtue of the hero as a crime, and condemns him to exile.

Fortunately Czillei himself soon fell into disfavor; the Germans
themselves overthrew him; and the King, now better informed, replaced
Hunyady in the post of captain-general of the kingdom.

Hunyady, who meanwhile had been living retired in one of his castles, now
complied with the King's wish without difficulty or hesitation, and again
assumed the highest military command. Instead of seeking how to revenge
himself after the manner of ordinary men, he only thought of the great
enemy of his country, the Turk. And indeed, as it was, threatening clouds
hung over the horizon in the southeast.

A new sultan had come to the throne, Mahomet II, one of the greatest
sovereigns of the house of Othman. He began his reign with the occupation
of Constantinople, 1453, and thus destroyed the last refuge of the
Byzantine empire. At the news of this event all Europe burst into a
chorus of lamentation. The whole importance of the Eastern question at
once presented itself before the nations of Christendom. It was at once
understood that the new conqueror would not remain idle within the
crumbling walls of Constantinople.

And, indeed, in no long time was published the proud _mot d'ordre_, "As
there is but one God in heaven, so there shall be but one master upon
earth."

Hunyady looked toward Constantinople with heavy heart. He foresaw the
outburst of the storm which would in the first place fall upon his own
country, threatening it with utter ruin. Hunyady, so it seemed, was again
left alone in the defence of Christendom.

The approaching danger was delayed for a few years, but in 1456 Mahomet,
having finally established himself in Constantinople, set out with the
intention of striking a fatal blow against Hungary. On the borders of
that country, on the bank of the Danube, on what was, properly speaking,
Servian territory, stood the fortress of Belgrad. When the danger from
the Turks became imminent, the kings of Hungary purchased the place from
the despots of Servia, giving them in exchange several extensive estates
in Hungary, and had at great expense turned it into a vast fortress, at
that time supposed to be impregnable.

Mahomet determined to take the place, and to this end made the most
extensive preparations. He led to the walls of Belgrad an army of not
less than one hundred and fifty thousand men. The approach of this
immense host so terrified the young King that he left Hungary and took
refuge in Vienna along with his uncle and counsellor, Czillei.

Hunyady alone remained at his post, resolute like a lion attacked. The
energy of the old leader--he was now nearly sixty-eight--was only steeled
by the greatness of the danger; his forethought and his mental resources
were but increased. As he saw that it would be impossible to do anything
with a small army, he sent his friend, John Capistran, an Italian
Franciscan, a man animated by a burning zeal akin to his own, to preach a
crusade against the enemies of Christendom through the towns and villages
of the Great Hungarian Plain. This the friar did to such effect that in a
few weeks he had collected sixty thousand men, ready to fight in defence
of the cross. This army of crusaders--the