Ferdinand Raimund - "Der Diamant des Geisterkoenigs"

Nathaniel Bright Emerson - "Unwritten Literature of Hawaii"

Desiderius Erasmus - "The Praise of Folly"

Anna Green Winslow - "Diary of Anna Green Winslow"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
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.

A General History for Colleges and High Schools

P >> P. V. N. Myers >> A General History for Colleges and High Schools




RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES.--The Crusades kept all Europe in a tumult for two
centuries, and directly and indirectly cost Christendom several millions
of lives (from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 according to different estimates),
besides incalculable expenditures in treasure and suffering. They were,
moreover, attended by all the disorder, license, and crime with which war
is always accompanied.

On the other hand, the Holy Wars were productive indirectly of so much and
lasting good that they form a most important factor in the history of the
progress of civilization. To show this to be so, we will speak briefly of
their influence upon the Church, and upon the political, the social, the
intellectual, and the material progress and development of the European
nations.

The Crusades contributed to increase the wealth of the Church and the
power of the Papacy. Thus the prominent part which the Popes took in the
enterprises naturally fostered their authority and influence, by placing
in their hands, as it were, the armies and resources of Christendom, and
accustoming the people to look to them as guides and leaders. As to the
wealth of the churches and monasteries, this was augmented enormously by
the sale to them, often for a mere fraction of their actual value, of the
estates of those preparing for the expeditions, or by the out and out gift
of the lands of such in return for prayers and pious benedictions. Again,
thousands of the crusaders, returning broken in spirits and in health,
sought an asylum in cloistral retreats, and endowed the establishments
that they entered with all their worldly goods. Besides all this, the
stream of the ordinary gifts of piety was swollen by the extraordinary
fervor of religious enthusiasm which characterized the period into
enormous proportions. In all these ways, the power of the Papacy and the
wealth of the Church were vastly augmented. [Footnote: It should be said
in regard to this increase in the riches of the Church and the authority
of the Popes, that while Catholics count this as one of the good results
of the Holy Wars, Protestants consider it as one of the evils of the
movements, urging that it led to papal tyranny and to the corruption of
monastic morals.]

As to the political effects of the Crusades, they helped to break down the
power of the feudal aristocracy, and to give prominence to the kings and
the people. Many of the nobles who set out on the expeditions never
returned, and their estates, through failure of heirs, escheated to the
Crown; while many more wasted their fortunes in meeting the expenses of
their undertaking. At the same time, the cities also gained many political
advantages at the expense of the crusading barons and princes. Ready money
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was largely in the hands of the
burgher class, and in return for the contributions and loans they made to
their overlords, or suzerains, they received charters conferring special
and valuable privileges. And under this head of the political effects of
the Crusades, it should be noticed that, in checking the advance of the
Turks, they postponed the fall of Constantinople for three centuries or
more. This gave the young Christian civilization of Germany time to
acquire sufficient strength to roll back the returning tide of Mohammedan
invasion when it broke upon Europe in the fifteenth century.

The effects of the Crusades upon the social life of the Western nations
were marked and important. Giving opportunity for romantic adventure, they
were one of the principal fostering influences of Chivalry; while by
bringing the rude peoples of the West in contact with the culture of the
East, they exerted upon them a general refining influence.

The influence of the Crusades upon the intellectual development of Europe
can hardly be overestimated. Above all, they liberalized the minds of the
crusaders. Furthermore, the knowledge of the science and learning of the
East gained by the crusaders through their expeditions, greatly stimulated
the Latin intellect, and helped to awaken in Western Europe that mental
activity which resulted finally in the great intellectual outburst known
as the Revival of Learning (see p. 471).

Among the effects of the Holy Wars upon the material development of Europe
must be mentioned the spur they gave to commercial enterprise, especially
to the trade and commerce of the Italian cities. During this period,
Venice, Pisa, and Genoa acquired great wealth and reputation through the
fostering of their trade by the needs of the crusaders, and the opening up
of the East. The Mediterranean was whitened with the sails of their
transport ships, which were constantly plying between the various ports of
Europe and the towns of the Syrian coast. Moreover, various arts,
manufactures, and inventions before unknown in Europe, were introduced
from Asia. This enrichment of the civilization of the West with the
"spoils of the East" we may allow to be emblemized by the famous bronze
horses that the crusaders carried off from Constantinople, and set up
before St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice.

Lastly, the incentive given to geographical discovery led various
travellers, such as the celebrated Italian, Marco Polo, and the scarcely
less noted Englishman, Sir John Mandeville, to explore the most remote
countries of Asia. Even that spirit of maritime enterprise and adventure
which rendered illustrious the fifteenth century, inspiring the voyages of
Columbus, Vasco de Gama, and Magellan, may be traced back to that lively
interest in geographical matters awakened by the expeditions of the
crusaders.




CHAPTER XLIII.

SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY: DECLINE OF ITS TEMPORAL POWER.


INTRODUCTORY.--In a previous chapter we traced the gradual rise of the
spiritual and temporal power of the Papacy, and stated the several
theories respecting its relation to secular rulers. In the present
chapter, we purpose to follow its increasing power to the culmination of
its authority in the thirteenth century, and then to speak of some of the
circumstances that caused, or that marked, the decline of its temporal
power.

POPE GREGORY VII. (HILDEBRAND) AND HIS REFORMS.--One of the greatest
promoters of the papal fortunes was Pope Gregory VII., perhaps better
known as Hildebrand, the most noteworthy character after Charlemagne that
the Middle Ages produced. In the year 1049 he was called from the
cloisters of a French monastery to Rome, there to become the maker and
adviser of Popes, and finally to be himself elevated to the pontifical
throne, which he held from 1073 to 1080. Being a man of great force of
character and magnificent breadth of view, he did much towards
establishing the universal spiritual and temporal sovereignty of the Holy
See.

In carrying out his purpose of exalting the Papal See above all prelates
and princes, Gregory, as soon as he became Pope, set about two important
reforms,--the enforcement of celibacy among the secular clergy, and the
suppression of simony. By the first measure he aimed to effect not only a
much-needed moral reform, but, by separating the clergy from all the
attachments of home and neighborhood and country, to render them more
devoted to the interests of the Church.

The second reform, the correction of simony, had for its ultimate object
the freeing of the lands and offices of the Church from the control of
temporal lords and princes, and the bringing of them more completely into
the hands of the Roman bishop.

The evil of simony [Footnote: By simony is meant the purchase of an office
in the Church, the name of the offence coming from Simon Magus, who
offered Paul money for the gift of working miracles.] had grown up in the
Church in the following way: As the feudal system took possession of
European society, the Church, like individuals and cities, assumed feudal
relations. Thus, as we have already seen, abbots and bishops, as the heads
of monasteries and churches, for the sake of protection, became the
vassals of powerful barons or princes. When once a prelate had rendered
homage for his estates, or temporalities, as they were called, these
became thenceforth a permanent fief of the overlord, and upon the death of
the holder could be re-bestowed by the lord upon whomsoever he chose.
These Church estates and positions that thus came within the gift of the
temporal princes were often given to unworthy court favorites, or sold to
the highest bidder. So long as a considerable portion of the clergy
sustained this vassal relation to the feudal lords, the Papal See could
not hope to exercise any great authority over them.

To remedy the evil, Gregory issued a decree that no ecclesiastic should do
homage to a temporal lord, but that he should receive the ring and staff,
the symbols of investiture, from the hands of the Pope alone. Any one who
should dare disobey the decree was threatened with the anathemas of the
Church.

Such was the bold measure by which Gregory proposed to wrest out of the
hands of the feudal lords and princes the vast patronage and immense
revenues resulting from the relation they had gradually come to sustain to
a large portion of the lands and riches of the Church. To realize the
magnitude of the proposed revolution, we must bear in mind that the Church
at this time was in possession of probably one-half of the lands of
Europe.

EXCOMMUNICATIONS AND INTERDICTS.--The principal instruments relied upon by
Gregory for the carrying out of his reforms were Excommunication and
Interdict.

The first was directed against individuals. The person excommunicated was
cut off from all relations with his fellow-men. If a king, his subjects
were released from their oath of allegiance. Any one providing the
accursed with food or shelter incurred the wrath of the Church. The
Interdict was directed against a city, province, or kingdom. Throughout
the region under this ban, the churches were closed; no bell could be
rung, no marriage celebrated, no burial ceremony performed. The rites of
baptism and extreme unction alone could be administered. These spiritual
punishments rarely failed during the eleventh and twelfth centuries in
bringing the most contumacious offender to a speedy and abject confession.
This will appear in the following paragraph.

GREGORY VII. AND HENRY IV. OF GERMANY.--The decree of Gregory respecting
the relation of the clergy to the feudal lords created a perfect storm of
opposition, not only among the temporal princes and sovereigns of Europe,
but also among the clergy themselves. The dispute thus begun distracted
Europe for centuries.

Gregory experienced the most formidable opposition to his reforms in
Germany. The Emperor Henry IV. refused to recognize his decree, and even
called a council of the clergy of Germany and deposed him. Gregory in turn
gathered a council at Rome, and deposed and excommunicated the emperor.
This encouraged a revolt on the part of some of Henry's discontented
subjects. He was shunned as a man accursed by heaven. His authority seemed
to have slipped entirely out of his hands, and his kingdom was on the
point of going to pieces. In this wretched state of his affairs there was
but one thing for him to do,--to go to Gregory, and humbly sue for pardon
and re-instatement in the favor of the Church.

Henry sought the Pontiff at Canossa among the Apennines. But Gregory
refused to admit the penitent to his presence. It was winter, and for
three successive days the king, clothed in sackcloth, stood with bare feet
in the snow of the court-yard of the palace, waiting for permission to
kneel at the feet of the Pontiff and to receive forgiveness. On the fourth
day the penitent king was admitted to the presence of Gregory, who re-
instated him in favor--to the extent of removing the sentence of
excommunication (1077).

Henry afterwards avenged his humiliation. He raised an army, invaded
Italy, and drove Gregory into exile at Salerno, where he died. His last
words were, "I have loved justice and hated iniquity, and therefore I die
in exile" (1085),

But the quarrel did not end here. It was taken up by the successors of
Gregory, and Henry was again excommunicated. After maintaining a long
struggle with the power of the Church, and with his own sons, who were
incited to rebel against him, he at last died of a broken heart (1106).

THE POPES AND THE HOHENSTAUFEN EMPERORS.--In the twelfth century began the
long and fierce contention--lasting more than a hundred years--between the
Papal See and the emperors of the proud House of Hohenstaufen (see p.
504). It was simply the continuation and culmination of the struggle begun
long before to decide which should be supreme, the "world-priest" or the
"world-king." The outcome was the final triumph of the Roman bishops and
the utter ruin of the Hohenstaufen.

THE PAPACY AT ITS HEIGHT.--The authority of the Popes was at its height
during the thirteenth century. The beginning of this period of papal
splendor is marked by the accession to the pontifical throne of Innocent
III. (1198-1216), the greatest of the Popes after Gregory VII. Under him
was very nearly made good the papal claim that all earthly sovereigns were
merely vassals of the Roman Pontiff. Almost all the kings and princes of
Europe swore fealty to him as their overlord. "Rome was once more the
mistress of the world."

POPE INNOCENT III. AND PHILIP AUGUSTUS OF FRANCE.--One of Innocent's most
signal triumphs in his contest with the kings of Europe was gained over
Philip Augustus (1180-1223) of France. That king having put away his wife,
Innocent commanded him to take her back, and forced him to submission by
means of an interdict. "This submission of such a prince," says Hallam,
"not feebly superstitious like his predecessor Robert, nor vexed with
seditions, like the Emperor Henry IV., but brave, firm, and victorious, is
perhaps the proudest trophy in the scutcheon of Rome."

POPE INNOCENT III. AND KING JOHN OF ENGLAND.--Innocent's quarrel with King
John (1199-1216) of England will afford another illustration of the power
of the Popes. The See of Canterbury falling vacant, John ordered the monks
who had the right of election to give the place to a favorite of his. They
obeyed; but the Pope immediately declared the election void, and caused
the vacancy to be filled with one of his own friends, Stephen Langton.
John declared that the Pope's archbishop should never enter England as
primate, and proceeded to confiscate the estates of the See. Innocent III.
now laid all England under an interdict, excommunicated John, and incited
the French king, Philip Augustus, to undertake a crusade against the
contumacious rebel.

The outcome of the matter was that John, like the German Emperor before
him, was compelled to yield to the power of the Church. He gave back the
lands he had confiscated, acknowledged Langton to be the rightful primate
of England, and even went so far as to give England to the Pope as a
perpetual fief. In token of his vassalage he agreed to pay to the Papal
See the annual sum of 1000 marks. This tribute money was actually paid,
though with very great irregularity, until the seventeenth year of the
reign of Edward I. (1289).

THE MENDICANTS, OR BEGGING FRIARS.--The authority of the immediate
successors of Innocent III. was powerfully supported by the monastic
orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans, established early in the
thirteenth century. They were named after their respective founders, St.
Dominic (1170-1221) and St. Francis (1182-1226). The principles on which
these fraternities were established were very different from those which
had shaped all previous monastic institutions. Until now the monk had
sought cloistral solitude in order to escape from the world, and through
penance and prayer and contemplation to work out his own salvation. In the
new orders, the monk was to give himself wholly to the work of securing
the salvation of others.

Again, the orders were also as _orders_ to renounce all earthly
possessions, and, "espousing Poverty as a bride," to rely entirely for
support upon the alms of the pious. Hitherto, while the individual members
of a monastic order must affect extreme poverty, the house or fraternity
might possess any amount of communal wealth.

The new fraternities grew and spread with marvellous rapidity, and in less
than a generation they quite overshadowed all of the old monastic orders
of the Church. The Popes conferred many and special privileges upon them,
and they in turn became the staunchest friends and supporters of the Roman
See. They were to the Papacy of the thirteenth century what the later
order of the Jesuits was to the Roman Church of the seventeenth (see p.
528).

REMOVAL OF THE PAPAL SEAT TO AVIGNON (1309).--Having now noticed some of
the most prominent circumstances and incidents that marked the gradual
advance of the bishops of Rome to almost universal political and
ecclesiastical sovereignty, we shall next direct attention to some of the
chief events that marked the decline of their temporal power, and prepared
the way for the rejection, at a later date, by a large part of
Christendom, of their spiritual authority.

One of the severest blows given both the temporal and the spiritual
authority of the Popes was the removal, in 1309, through the influence of
the French king, Philip the Fair, of the papal chair from Rome to Avignon,
in Provence, near the frontier of France. Here it remained for a space of
about seventy years, an era known in Church history as the Babylonian
Captivity. While it was established here, all the Popes were French, and
of course all their policies were shaped and controlled by the French
kings. "In that city," says Stille, "the Papacy ceased, in the eyes of a
very large part of Christendom, to possess that sacred cosmopolitan
character which no doubt had had much to do with the veneration and
respect with which the Catholic authority had been regarded."

THE GREAT SCHISM (1378).--The discontent awakened among the Italians by
the situation of the papal court at length led to an open rupture between
them and the French party. In 1378 the opposing factions each elected a
Pope, and thus there were two heads of the Church, one at Avignon and the
other at Rome.

The spectacle of two rival Popes, each claiming to be the rightful
successor of St. Peter and the sole infallible head of the Church, very
naturally led men to question the claims and infallibility of both. It
gave the reverence which the world had so generally held for the Roman See
a rude shock, and one from which it never recovered.

THE CHURCH COUNCILS OF PISA AND CONSTANCE.--Finally, in 1409, a general
council of the Church assembled at Pisa, for the purpose of composing the
shameful quarrel. This council deposed both Popes, and elected Alexander
V. as the supreme head of the Church. But matters instead of being mended
hereby were only made worse; for neither of the deposed pontiffs would lay
down his authority in obedience to the demands of the council, and
consequently there were now three Popes instead of two.

In 1414 another council was called, at Constance, for the settlement of
the growing dispute. Two of the claimants were deposed, and one resigned.
A new Pope was then elected,--Pope Martin V. In his person the Catholic
world was again united under a single spiritual head. The schism was
outwardly healed, but the wound had been too deep not to leave permanent
marks upon the Church.

THE REVOLT OF THE TEMPORAL PRINCES.--Taking advantage of the declining
authority of the Papal See, the temporal rulers in France, Germany, and
England successively revolted, and freed themselves from the authority of
the Papacy as touching political or governmental affairs. But it must be
borne in mind that the princes or governments that at this time repudiated
the temporal authority of the Papal See, did not think of challenging the
claims of the Popes to recognition as the supreme head of the
_Church_, and the rightful arbiters in all _spiritual_ matters. At the
very time that they were striving to emancipate themselves from papal
control in temporal matters, they were lending the Church all their
strength to punish heresy and schism. Thus the Albigenses [Footnote: See
p. 493.] in Southern France, the Lollards [Footnote: See p. 491.] in
England, and the Hussites [Footnote: See p. 506.] in Bohemia, were
extirpated or punished by the civil authorities, acting either in
accordance with the then universal idea of how heresy should be dealt
with, or in obedience to the commands of the Roman See.




CHAPTER XLIV.

CONQUESTS OF THE TURANIAN TRIBES.


THE HUNS AND THE HUNGARIANS.--The Huns, of whom we have already told, were
the first Turanians that during historic times pushed their way in among
the peoples of Europe (see p. 345).

The next Turanian invaders of Europe that we need here notice were the
Magyars, or Hungarians, another branch of the Hunnic race, who in the
ninth century of our era succeeded in thrusting themselves far into the
continent, and establishing there the important Kingdom of Hungary. These
people, in marked contrast to almost every other tribe of Turanian origin,
adopted the manners, customs, and religion of the peoples about them--
became, in a word, thoroughly Europeanized, and for a long time were the
main defence of Christian Europe against the Turkish tribes of the same
race that followed closely in their footsteps.

THE SELJUKIAN TURKS.--The Seljukian Turks, so called from the name of one
of their chiefs, are the next Tartar people that thrust themselves
prominently upon our notice. It was the capture of the holy places in
Palestine by this intolerant race, and their threatening advance towards
the Bosporus, that alarmed the Christian nations of Europe, and led to the
First Crusade.

The blows dealt the empire of the Seljuks by the crusaders, and disputes
respecting the succession, caused the once formidable sovereignty to
crumble to pieces, only, however, to be replaced by others of equally
rapid growth, destined to as quick a decay.

THE MONGOLS OR MOGULS.--While the power of the Seljukian Turks was
declining in Western Asia, the Mongols, or Moguls, a fierce and utterly
untamed Tartar tribe that first issued from the easternmost part of
Chinese Tartary, were building up a new dynasty among the various tribes
of the central portion of the continent. In the year 1156 was born their
greatest chieftain, Temujin, afterwards named Genghis Khan, or "Universal
Sovereign," the most terrible scourge that ever afflicted the human race.
At the head of vast armies, made up of numerous Turanian hordes, he
traversed with sword and torch a great part of Asia. It is estimated that
his enormous empire was built up at the cost of fifty thousand cities and
towns and five millions of lives,--a greater waste, probably, than
resulted from all the Crusades.

The successors of Genghis Khan still farther enlarged and strengthened the
monarchy, so that it came to embrace, besides the best part of Asia, a
considerable portion of Europe as well. At length the immoderately
extended empire fell into disorder, and became broken into many petty
states. It was restored by Tamerlane, or Timour the Lame (born about
1336), a descendant of Genghis Khan. With his wild Mongolian hordes he
traversed anew almost all the countries that had been desolated by the
sanguinary marches of his predecessors. The route of the barbarians was
everywhere marked by ruined fields and burned villages.

Asia has never recovered from the terrible devastation of the Mongol
conquerors. Many districts, swarming with life, were entirely swept of
their population by these destroyers of the race, and have remained to
this day desolate as the tomb.

The immense empire of Tamerlane crumbled to pieces after his death. One of
its fragments had a remarkable history. This was the dynasty established
in India, which became known as the Kingdom of the Great Moguls. This
Mongol state lasted upwards of 300 years,--until destroyed by the English
in the present century. The magnificence of the court of the Great Moguls
at Delhi and Agra is one of the most splendid traditions of the East.


THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

FOUNDING OF THE EMPIRE.--The latest, most permanent, and most important of
the Tartar sovereignties was established by the Ottoman Turks, who were an
offshoot of the Seljukians. Gradually this martial race seized province
after province of the Asiatic possessions of the Byzantine emperors.
Through the quarrels that were constantly distracting Constantinople, they
at last gained a foothold in Europe (1353). During the reign of Amurath I.
(1360-1389), a large part of the country known as Turkey in Europe fell
into their hands.

CONQUESTS OF BAJAZET (1389-1403).--Amurath was followed by his son Bajazet
who, by the rapid advance of his arms, spread the greatest alarm
throughout Western Europe. The warriors of Hungary, Germany, and France
united their armies to arrest his progress; but their combined forces,
numbering 100,000 men, were cut to pieces by the sabres of the Turks on
the fatal field of Nicopolis, in Bulgaria (1396). Bajazet now vowed that
he would stable his horse in the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome, and there
seemed no power in Christendom to prevent the sacrilege.

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