Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman - "Hero and Leander and Other Poems"

Alfred Lord Tennyson - "Becket and other plays"

Jules Verne - "Les Cinq Cents Millions de la Begum"

Victor Appleton - "Tom Swift and His Airship"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5




[Footnote 3: Ultra quinquaginta millia, si me possunt in
expeditione pro duce et pontifice habere, armata manu volunt in
inimicos Dei insurgere et ad sepulchrum Domini ipso ducente
pervenire, (Gregor. vii. epist. ii. 31, in tom. xii. 322,
concil.)]

[Footnote 4: See the original lives of Urban II. by Pandulphus
Pisanus and Bernardus Guido, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. tom.
iii. pars i. p. 352, 353.]

[Footnote 5: She is known by the different names of Praxes,
Eupraecia, Eufrasia, and Adelais; and was the daughter of a
Russian prince, and the widow of a margrave of Brandenburgh.
(Struv. Corpus Hist. Germanicae, p. 340.)]

[Footnote 6: Henricus odio eam coepit habere: ideo incarceravit
eam, et concessit ut plerique vim ei inferrent; immo filium
hortans ut eam subagitaret, (Dodechin, Continuat. Marian. Scot.
apud Baron. A.D. 1093, No. 4.) In the synod of Constance, she is
described by Bertholdus, rerum inspector: quae se tantas et tam
inauditas fornicationum spur citias, et a tantis passam fuisse
conquesta est, &c.; and again at Placentia: satis misericorditer
suscepit, eo quod ipsam tantas spurcitias pertulisse pro certo
cognoverit papa cum sancta synodo. Apud Baron. A.D. 1093, No. 4,
1094, No. 3. A rare subject for the infallible decision of a pope
and council. These abominations are repugnant to every principle
of human nature, which is not altered by a dispute about rings
and crosiers. Yet it should seem, that the wretched woman was
tempted by the priests to relate or subscribe some infamous
stories of herself and her husband.]

[Footnote 7: See the narrative and acts of the synod of
Placentia, Concil. tom. xii. p. 821, &c.]

[Footnote 8: Guibert, himself a Frenchman, praises the piety and
valor of the French nation, the author and example of the
crusades: Gens nobilis, prudens, bellicosa, dapsilis et nitida
.... Quos enim Britones, Anglos, Ligures, si bonis eos moribus
videamus, non illico Francos homines appellemus? (p. 478.) He
owns, however, that the vivacity of the French degenerates into
petulance among foreigners, (p. 488.) and vain loquaciousness,
(p. 502.)]

[Footnote 9: Per viam quam jamdudum Carolus Magnus mirificus rex
Francorum aptari fecit usque C. P., (Gesta Francorum, p. 1.
Robert. Monach. Hist. Hieros. l. i. p. 33, &c.]

[Footnote 10: John Tilpinus, or Turpinus, was archbishop of
Rheims, A.D. 773. After the year 1000, this romance was composed
in his name, by a monk of the borders of France and Spain; and
such was the idea of ecclesiastical merit, that he describes
himself as a fighting and drinking priest! Yet the book of lies
was pronounced authentic by Pope Calixtus II., (A.D. 1122,) and
is respectfully quoted by the abbot Suger, in the great
Chronicles of St. Denys, (Fabric Bibliot. Latin Medii Aevi, edit.
Mansi, tom. iv. p. 161.)]

It may occasion some surprise that the Roman pontiff should
erect, in the heart of France, the tribunal from whence he hurled
his anathemas against the king; but our surprise will vanish so
soon as we form a just estimate of a king of France of the
eleventh century. ^11 Philip the First was the great-grandson of
Hugh Capet, the founder of the present race, who, in the decline
of Charlemagne's posterity, added the regal title to his
patrimonial estates of Paris and Orleans. In this narrow
compass, he was possessed of wealth and jurisdiction; but in the
rest of France, Hugh and his first descendants were no more than
the feudal lords of about sixty dukes and counts, of independent
and hereditary power, ^12 who disdained the control of laws and
legal assemblies, and whose disregard of their sovereign was
revenged by the disobedience of their inferior vassals. At
Clermont, in the territories of the count of Auvergne, ^13 the
pope might brave with impunity the resentment of Philip; and the
council which he convened in that city was not less numerous or
respectable than the synod of Placentia. ^14 Besides his court
and council of Roman cardinals, he was supported by thirteen
archbishops and two hundred and twenty-five bishops: the number
of mitred prelates was computed at four hundred; and the fathers
of the church were blessed by the saints and enlightened by the
doctors of the age. From the adjacent kingdoms, a martial train
of lords and knights of power and renown attended the council,
^15 in high expectation of its resolves; and such was the ardor
of zeal and curiosity, that the city was filled, and many
thousands, in the month of November, erected their tents or huts
in the open field. A session of eight days produced some useful
or edifying canons for the reformation of manners; a severe
censure was pronounced against the license of private war; the
Truce of God ^16 was confirmed, a suspension of hostilities
during four days of the week; women and priests were placed under
the safeguard of the church; and a protection of three years was
extended to husbandmen and merchants, the defenceless victims of
military rapine. But a law, however venerable be the sanction,
cannot suddenly transform the temper of the times; and the
benevolent efforts of Urban deserve the less praise, since he
labored to appease some domestic quarrels that he might spread
the flames of war from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. From the
synod of Placentia, the rumor of his great design had gone forth
among the nations: the clergy on their return had preached in
every diocese the merit and glory of the deliverance of the Holy
Land; and when the pope ascended a lofty scaffold in the
market-place of Clermont, his eloquence was addressed to a
well-prepared and impatient audience. His topics were obvious,
his exhortation was vehement, his success inevitable. The orator
was interrupted by the shout of thousands, who with one voice,
and in their rustic idiom, exclaimed aloud, "God wills it, God
wills it." ^17 "It is indeed the will of God," replied the pope;
"and let this memorable word, the inspiration surely of the Holy
Spirit, be forever adopted as your cry of battle, to animate the
devotion and courage of the champions of Christ. His cross is
the symbol of your salvation; wear it, a red, a bloody cross, as
an external mark, on your breasts or shoulders, as a pledge of
your sacred and irrevocable engagement." The proposal was
joyfully accepted; great numbers, both of the clergy and laity,
impressed on their garments the sign of the cross, ^18 and
solicited the pope to march at their head. This dangerous honor
was declined by the more prudent successor of Gregory, who
alleged the schism of the church, and the duties of his pastoral
office, recommending to the faithful, who were disqualified by
sex or profession, by age or infirmity, to aid, with their
prayers and alms, the personal service of their robust brethren.
The name and powers of his legate he devolved on Adhemar bishop
of Puy, the first who had received the cross at his hands. The
foremost of the temporal chiefs was Raymond count of Thoulouse,
whose ambassadors in the council excused the absence, and pledged
the honor, of their master. After the confession and absolution
of their sins, the champions of the cross were dismissed with a
superfluous admonition to invite their countrymen and friends;
and their departure for the Holy Land was fixed to the festival
of the Assumption, the fifteenth of August, of the ensuing year.
^19

[Footnote 11: See Etat de la France, by the Count de
Boulainvilliers, tom. i. p. 180 - 182, and the second volume of
the Observations sur l'Histoire de France, by the Abbe de Mably.]

[Footnote 12: In the provinces to the south of the Loire, the
first Capetians were scarcely allowed a feudal supremacy. On all
sides, Normandy, Bretagne, Aquitain, Burgundy, Lorraine, and
Flanders, contracted the same and limits of the proper France.
See Hadrian Vales. Notitia Galliarum]

[Footnote 13: These counts, a younger branch of the dukes of
Aquitain, were at length despoiled of the greatest part of their
country by Philip Augustus. The bishops of Clermont gradually
became princes of the city. Melanges, tires d'une grand
Bibliotheque, tom. xxxvi. p. 288, &c.]

[Footnote 14: See the Acts of the council of Clermont, Concil.
tom. xii. p. 829, &c.]

[Footnote 15: Confluxerunt ad concilium e multis regionibus, viri
potentes et honorati, innumeri quamvis cingulo laicalis militiae
superbi, (Baldric, an eye-witness, p. 86 - 88. Robert. Monach.
p. 31, 32. Will. Tyr. i. 14, 15, p. 639 - 641. Guibert, p. 478
- 480. Fulcher. Carnot. p. 382.)]

[Footnote 16: The Truce of God (Treva, or Treuga Dei) was first
invented in Aquitain, A.D. 1032; blamed by some bishops as an
occasion of perjury, and rejected by the Normans as contrary to
their privileges (Ducange, Gloss Latin. tom. vi. p. 682 - 685.)]

[Footnote 17: Deus vult, Deus vult! was the pure acclamation of
the clergy who understood Latin, (Robert. Mon. l. i. p. 32.) By
the illiterate laity, who spoke the Provincial or Limousin idiom,
it was corrupted to Deus lo volt, or Diex el volt. See Chron.
Casinense, l. iv. c. 11, p. 497, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital.
tom. iv., and Ducange, (Dissertat xi. p. 207, sur Joinville, and
Gloss. Latin. tom. ii. p. 690,) who, in his preface, produces a
very difficult specimen of the dialect of Rovergue, A.D. 1100,
very near, both in time and place, to the council of Clermont,
(p. 15, 16.)]

[Footnote 18: Most commonly on their shoulders, in gold, or silk,
or cloth sewed on their garments. In the first crusade, all were
red, in the third, the French alone preserved that color, while
green crosses were adopted by the Flemings, and white by the
English, (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 651.) Yet in England, the red ever
appears the favorite, and as if were, the national, color of our
military ensigns and uniforms.]

[Footnote 19: Bongarsius, who has published the original writers
of the crusades, adopts, with much complacency, the fanatic title
of Guibertus, Gesta Dei per Francos; though some critics propose
to read Gesta Diaboli per Francos, (Hanoviae, 1611, two vols. in
folio.) I shall briefly enumerate, as they stand in this
collection, the authors whom I have used for the first crusade.

I. Gesta Francorum.

II. Robertus Monachus.

III. Baldricus.

IV. Raimundus de Agiles.

V. Albertus Aquensis VI. Fulcherius Carnotensis.

VII. Guibertus.

VIII. Willielmus Tyriensis. Muratori has given us,

IX. Radulphus Cadomensis de Gestis Tancredi,

(Script. Rer. Ital. tom. v. p. 285 - 333,)

X. Bernardus Thesaurarius de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae,

(tom. vii. p. 664 - 848.)

The last of these was unknown to a late French historian,
who has given a large and critical list of the writers of the
crusades, (Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13 - 141,) and most
of whose judgments my own experience will allow me to ratify. It
was late before I could obtain a sight of the French historians
collected by Duchesne. I. Petri Tudebodi Sacerdotis Sivracensis
Historia de Hierosolymitano Itinere, (tom. iv. p. 773 - 815,) has
been transfused into the first anonymous writer of Bongarsius.
II. The Metrical History of the first Crusade, in vii. books, (p.
890 - 912,) is of small value or account.

Note: Several new documents, particularly from the East,
have been collected by the industry of the modern historians of
the crusades, M. Michaud and Wilken. - M.]

So familiar, and as it were so natural to man, is the
practice of violence, that our indulgence allows the slightest
provocation, the most disputable right, as a sufficient ground of
national hostility. But the name and nature of a holy war
demands a more rigorous scrutiny; nor can we hastily believe,
that the servants of the Prince of Peace would unsheathe the
sword of destruction, unless the motive were pure, the quarrel
legitimate, and the necessity inevitable. The policy of an
action may be determined from the tardy lessons of experience;
but, before we act, our conscience should be satisfied of the
justice and propriety of our enterprise. In the age of the
crusades, the Christians, both of the East and West, were
persuaded of their lawfulness and merit; their arguments are
clouded by the perpetual abuse of Scripture and rhetoric; but
they seem to insist on the right of natural and religious
defence, their peculiar title to the Holy Land, and the impiety
of their Pagan and Mahometan foes. ^20

I. The right of a just defence may fairly include our civil
and spiritual allies: it depends on the existence of danger; and
that danger must be estimated by the twofold consideration of the
malice, and the power, of our enemies. A pernicious tenet has
been imputed to the Mahometans, the duty of extirpating all other
religions by the sword. This charge of ignorance and bigotry is
refuted by the Koran, by the history of the Mussulman conquerors,
and by their public and legal toleration of the Christian
worship. But it cannot be denied, that the Oriental churches are
depressed under their iron yoke; that, in peace and war, they
assert a divine and indefeasible claim of universal empire; and
that, in their orthodox creed, the unbelieving nations are
continually threatened with the loss of religion or liberty. In
the eleventh century, the victorious arms of the Turks presented
a real and urgent apprehension of these losses. They had
subdued, in less than thirty years, the kingdoms of Asia, as far
as Jerusalem and the Hellespont; and the Greek empire tottered on
the verge of destruction. Besides an honest sympathy for their
brethren, the Latins had a right and interest in the support of
Constantinople, the most important barrier of the West; and the
privilege of defence must reach to prevent, as well as to repel,
an impending assault. But this salutary purpose might have been
accomplished by a moderate succor; and our calmer reason must
disclaim the innumerable hosts, and remote operations, which
overwhelmed Asia and depopulated Europe. ^*

[Footnote 20: If the reader will turn to the first scene of the
First Part of Henry the Fourth, he will see in the text of
Shakespeare the natural feelings of enthusiasm; and in the notes
of Dr. Johnson the workings of a bigoted, though vigorous mind,
greedy of every pretence to hate and persecute those who dissent
from his creed.]

[Footnote *: The manner in which the war was conducted surely has
little relation to the abstract question of the justice or
injustice of the war. The most just and necessary war may be
conducted with the most prodigal waste of human life, and the
wildest fanaticism; the most unjust with the coolest moderation
and consummate generalship. The question is, whether the
liberties and religion of Europe were in danger from the
aggressions of Mahometanism? If so, it is difficult to limit the
right, though it may be proper to question the wisdom, of
overwhelming the enemy with the armed population of a whole
continent, and repelling, if possible, the invading conqueror
into his native deserts. The crusades are monuments of human
folly! but to which of the more regular wars civilized. Europe,
waged for personal ambition or national jealousy, will our calmer
reason appeal as monuments either of human justice or human
wisdom? - M.]

II. Palestine could add nothing to the strength or safety
of the Latins; and fanaticism alone could pretend to justify the
conquest of that distant and narrow province. The Christians
affirmed that their inalienable title to the promised land had
been sealed by the blood of their divine Savior; it was their
right and duty to rescue their inheritance from the unjust
possessors, who profaned his sepulchre, and oppressed the
pilgrimage of his disciples. Vainly would it be alleged that the
preeminence of Jerusalem, and the sanctity of Palestine, have
been abolished with the Mosaic law; that the God of the
Christians is not a local deity, and that the recovery of Bethlem
or Calvary, his cradle or his tomb, will not atone for the
violation of the moral precepts of the gospel. Such arguments
glance aside from the leaden shield of superstition; and the
religious mind will not easily relinquish its hold on the sacred
ground of mystery and miracle.

III. But the holy wars which have been waged in every
climate of the globe, from Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru to
Hindostan, require the support of some more general and flexible
tenet. It has been often supposed, and sometimes affirmed, that
a difference of religion is a worthy cause of hostility; that
obstinate unbelievers may be slain or subdued by the champions of
the cross; and that grace is the sole fountain of dominion as
well as of mercy. ^* Above four hundred years before the first
crusade, the eastern and western provinces of the Roman empire
had been acquired about the same time, and in the same manner, by
the Barbarians of Germany and Arabia. Time and treaties had
legitimated the conquest of the Christian Franks; but in the eyes
of their subjects and neighbors, the Mahometan princes were still
tyrants and usurpers, who, by the arms of war or rebellion, might
be lawfully driven from their unlawful possession. ^21

[Footnote *: "God," says the abbot Guibert, "invented the
crusades as a new way for the laity to atone for their sins and
to merit salvation." This extraordinary and characteristic
passage must be given entire. "Deus nostro tempore praelia
sancta instituit, ut ordo equestris et vulgus oberrans qui
vetustae Paganitatis exemplo in mutuas versabatur caedes, novum
reperirent salutis promerendae genus, ut nec funditus electa, ut
fieri assolet, monastica conversatione, seu religiosa qualibet
professione saeculum relinquere congerentur; sed sub consueta
licentia et habitu ex suo ipsorum officio Dei aliquantenus
gratiam consequerentur." Guib. Abbas, p. 371. See Wilken, vol.
i. p. 63. - M.]

[Footnote 21: The vith Discourse of Fleury on Ecclesiastical
History (p. 223 - 261) contains an accurate and rational view of
the causes and effects of the crusades.]

As the manners of the Christians were relaxed, their
discipline of penance ^22 was enforced; and with the
multiplication of sins, the remedies were multiplied. In the
primitive church, a voluntary and open confession prepared the
work of atonement. In the middle ages, the bishops and priests
interrogated the criminal; compelled him to account for his
thoughts, words, and actions; and prescribed the terms of his
reconciliation with God. But as this discretionary power might
alternately be abused by indulgence and tyranny, a rule of
discipline was framed, to inform and regulate the spiritual
judges. This mode of legislation was invented by the Greeks;
their penitentials ^23 were translated, or imitated, in the Latin
church; and, in the time of Charlemagne, the clergy of every
diocese were provided with a code, which they prudently concealed
from the knowledge of the vulgar. In this dangerous estimate of
crimes and punishments, each case was supposed, each difference
was remarked, by the experience or penetration of the monks; some
sins are enumerated which innocence could not have suspected, and
others which reason cannot believe; and the more ordinary
offences of fornication and adultery, of perjury and sacrilege,
of rapine and murder, were expiated by a penance, which,
according to the various circumstances, was prolonged from forty
days to seven years. During this term of mortification, the
patient was healed, the criminal was absolved, by a salutary
regimen of fasts and prayers: the disorder of his dress was
expressive of grief and remorse; and he humbly abstained from all
the business and pleasure of social life. But the rigid
execution of these laws would have depopulated the palace, the
camp, and the city; the Barbarians of the West believed and
trembled; but nature often rebelled against principle; and the
magistrate labored without effect to enforce the jurisdiction of
the priest. A literal accomplishment of penance was indeed
impracticable: the guilt of adultery was multiplied by daily
repetition; that of homicide might involve the massacre of a
whole people; each act was separately numbered; and, in those
times of anarchy and vice, a modest sinner might easily incur a
debt of three hundred years. His insolvency was relieved by a
commutation, or indulgence: a year of penance was appreciated at
twenty-six solidi ^24 of silver, about four pounds sterling, for
the rich; at three solidi, or nine shillings, for the indigent:
and these alms were soon appropriated to the use of the church,
which derived, from the redemption of sins, an inexhaustible
source of opulence and dominion. A debt of three hundred years,
or twelve hundred pounds, was enough to impoverish a plentiful
fortune; the scarcity of gold and silver was supplied by the
alienation of land; and the princely donations of Pepin and
Charlemagne are expressly given for the remedy of their soul. It
is a maxim of the civil law, that whosoever cannot pay with his
purse, must pay with his body; and the practice of flagellation
was adopted by the monks, a cheap, though painful equivalent. By
a fantastic arithmetic, a year of penance was taxed at three
thousand lashes; ^25 and such was the skill and patience of a
famous hermit, St. Dominic of the iron Cuirass, ^26 that in six
days he could discharge an entire century, by a whipping of three
hundred thousand stripes. His example was followed by many
penitents of both sexes; and, as a vicarious sacrifice was
accepted, a sturdy disciplinarian might expiate on his own back
the sins of his benefactors. ^27 These compensations of the purse
and the person introduced, in the eleventh century, a more
honorable mode of satisfaction. The merit of military service
against the Saracens of Africa and Spain had been allowed by the
predecessors of Urban the Second. In the council of Clermont,
that pope proclaimed a plenary indulgence to those who should
enlist under the banner of the cross; the absolution of all their
sins, and a full receipt for all that might be due of canonical
penance. ^28 The cold philosophy of modern times is incapable of
feeling the impression that was made on a sinful and fanatic
world. At the voice of their pastor, the robber, the incendiary,
the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their souls, by
repeating on the infidels the same deeds which they had exercised
against their Christian brethren; and the terms of atonement were
eagerly embraced by offenders of every rank and denomination.
None were pure; none were exempt from the guilt and penalty of
sin; and those who were the least amenable to the justice of God
and the church were the best entitled to the temporal and eternal
recompense of their pious courage. If they fell, the spirit of
the Latin clergy did not hesitate to adorn their tomb with the
crown of martyrdom; ^29 and should they survive, they could
expect without impatience the delay and increase of their
heavenly reward. They offered their blood to the Son of God, who
had laid down his life for their salvation: they took up the
cross, and entered with confidence into the way of the Lord. His
providence would watch over their safety; perhaps his visible and
miraculous power would smooth the difficulties of their holy
enterprise. The cloud and pillar of Jehovah had marched before
the Israelites into the promised land. Might not the Christians
more reasonably hope that the rivers would open for their
passage; that the walls of their strongest cities would fall at
the sound of their trumpets; and that the sun would be arrested
in his mid career, to allow them time for the destruction of the
infidels?

[Footnote 22: The penance, indulgences, &c., of the middle ages
are amply discussed by Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi,
tom. v. dissert. lxviii. p. 709 - 768,) and by M. Chais, (Lettres
sur les Jubiles et les Indulgences, tom. ii. lettres 21 & 22, p.
478 - 556,) with this difference, that the abuses of superstition
are mildly, perhaps faintly, exposed by the learned Italian, and
peevishly magnified by the Dutch minister.]

[Footnote 23: Schmidt (Histoire des Allemands, tom. ii. p. 211 -
220, 452 - 462) gives an abstract of the Penitential of Rhegino
in the ninth, and of Burchard in the tenth, century. In one
year, five-and-thirty murders were perpetrated at Worms.]

[Footnote 24: Till the xiith century, we may support the clear
account of xii. denarii, or pence, to the solidus, or shilling;
and xx. solidi to the pound weight of silver, about the pound
sterling. Our money is diminished to a third, and the French to
a fiftieth, of this primitive standard.]

[Footnote 25: Each century of lashes was sanctified with a
recital of a psalm, and the whole Psalter, with the accompaniment
of 15,000 stripes, was equivalent to five years.]

[Footnote 26: The Life and Achievements of St. Dominic Loricatus
was composed by his friend and admirer, Peter Damianus. See
Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 96 - 104. Baronius, A.D.
1056, No. 7, who observes, from Damianus, how fashionable, even
among ladies of quality, (sublimis generis,) this expiation
(purgatorii genus) was grown.]

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