Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/191

 183

HISTORY OF PRINTING.

many founden that lacke. The more pyte is. I would it pleased our soverayne lord, that twTse or thryce a year, or as the lest ones, he wold do cry justes of pies, to th' ende, that every knyghte sholde have hois and barneys, and also the use and craft of a knyghte ; and also to tomay one against one, or two against two, and the best to nave a prys — a diamond or jewels, such as should plese the prynce."*

The Book of Chivalry has been considered by Oldys, whose words have been repeated by Ames and Herbert, as " one of the scarcest books now remaining of our first printer;" and Mr. Dib- din adds, that it is also one of the most amusing.

Caxton informs as, that the translation was made out of French into English, in such man- ner as God had suffered him ; which book was not necessary for every common man, but only for such as intend to enter into the noble order of chivalry, the decay of which, in his day, he much laments, because the noble acts of the knights of old had spread renown throughout the universal world.

Caxton concludes with presenting his little work to king Richard the Third, praying that he may command it to be read to all young lords, knights, and gentlemen, to induce them to imitate the example of the worthy knights of old, for which he shall have his prayers for a prosperous reign on earth, and everlasting bliss in heaven.

1484, Sep. 13. The Ryal book ; or a Book for a Kyng. Folio.

Mr. Dibdin states, that Herbert has given a correct acicount of this book, which was un- known to Ames, but that he had seen five copies ofit.t

typograpber's view of this subject ; — " The design of these dlverslonB heing, as has been intimated, in part to please the ladies, and recommend to their favour the combatants, for their dress and manhood. But Mr, Caxton seemed to lutve another view in adrislng their encouragement, namely, the employing the nobility and gentry, that they might not spend their time worse, in gamtngand debanch. ery, and preserving their ancient courage and valour, that the honour and security of the English nation might not (Oirer through thtir sluicing and degenerating into ddl- eacy and effeminacy.
 * Mr. I^wis, In his Life of Caxton, thns explains oar

t Mr. D. gives this curious extraxrt from signatnie f. ]. recto:— "They that live after their Jollity wiU hold com- pany with fools : such folk can not, may not, ne will not, hold ne Iceep measure ne reason. They that live after hy. pocrisy be they that \m martyiv to the devil : such hypo- crites have two measures : for the two devils that torment the hypocrite be much contrary that one to that other. Tlut one salth, eat enough, so that thou be fair and fat : that other saith, thou shalt not, but thou Shalt fast, so that thou be pale and lean, to the end that the world hold thee for a good man; and that it may appear that thou doest much penance. Now It behoveth that the hypocrite hare 11 measures ; one little and one ^eat : of which they use Uie little measure tofore the people, and the great mea- sore they use so that no man can see them. They retain not the true measure that be avaricious. In such manner as the mouth will j which is the lady of the house and commander. Then between the belly and the mouth of the glutton be three disputadons. The belly saith, I will be full ; the mouth saith, 1 wiU not be full ; the belly saith to him, I will that thou eat, and take enough, and diapcnd largely ; the mouth salth, I shall not, I will thou restrain thee t— and what shall the sorry caltif do which is servant to his two evil lords? Two measures make the peace. The measure of the belly in an other man's house good and large i and the measure of bis mquth in his own house sorrowful and over scarce."

The volume is a thin folio, with printed initials, and has rude wood cuts. The leaves are unnumbered.

1484. The Inquisition established in Spain, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, by John de Torquemada, a Dominican monk and confessor to the queen. Torquemada, indefati- gable in his zeal for the holy chair, used every means to extirpate heresy and heretics, in the space of fourteen years that he exercised the officeof chief inquisitor, is said to have prosecuted near eighty thousand persons, of whom six thou- sand were condemned to the flames. Voltaire attributes the taciturnity of the Spaniards to the universal horror such proceedings spread. " A general jealousy and suspicion took possession of all ranks of people : friendship and sociability were at an end ! Brothers were afraid of brotheis, fathers of their children."*

The Inquisition punished heretics hyfirt,io elude the maxim, Eceletia mm novil sanguinem ; for burning a man, the v say, does not|sAe<2 Ait blood. Otho, the bishop at the Norman invasion, in the tapestry workea by Matilda queen of William the Conqueror, b represented with a mace in his hand, for the purpose that when he despatched his antagonist he might not spill his blood, bat only br^ his bones ! " Religion" says Mr. D'Israeli " has had her quibbles as well as law."

In the cathedral at Saragossa is the tomb of a famous inquisitor ; six pillars surround his tomb; to each is chained a Moor, as preparatory to his being burnt. On this St. Foix ingeniously ob-

snccessftil in his enterprises, baring sent Dominic with some missionaries Into Langnedoc, these men so irritated the heretics they were sent to convert, that most of them were assassinated at Toulouse in the year 1300. He called in the aid of temiMral arms, and published against them a crusade, granting, as was usual with the popes on similar occasions, all kinds of indulgences and pardons to those who should arm against these Mahometans, so he styled these unfortunate Languedocians. Once alt were Tnriu when they were not Romanists. It was then he esta- blished that scourge of Europe, The InqKieUion. — Dominic did so much by his persecuting inquiries, that he firmly established the inquisition at Toulouse.— D'Xfraett.
 * Innocent the third, a pope as enterprising as he was

The inquisition, since its foundation, has bornt at Oa stake above 100,000 persons of both sexes, besides destroy- ing twice that number by Imprisonment. Religions wars among Christians, for differences in opinion, on points now unintelligible, have cost the lives of above two mil. lions in direct slai^hters ; and the wars to establish Cliris- tianity, and those waged against the Turks about the Holy Land, &c. have cost fifty millions of lives. The wars of Charlemagne, &c. to Christianise the Saxons, &c. and of the Spaniards to Christianise the Moors and Americans, cost, at least, fifteen mllilODs.— In all cases of martyrdom, or punishment for opinions, the prosecutors and persecu- tors do not allege actual mischief committed, bat proceed prospectively, under an hypothesis that the opinion lias a tendency to produce some alleged or Imaginary mlacbief. — The Inqnlaition and the Spanish vulgar make no dls. tinction Ijetween a Moorish Mahomedan, a Jew, and a Protestant Christian. In 14S0, the books and manoscripls of each were burnt throughout Spain, and all science was confounded with the sciences of the hated Arabians.

Even in the reigns of the two last kings of Spain, four were burnt and fifty-six condemned to worse than death. The French abolished the inquisition, but the En^iah ar- mies, under Wellington, restored Ferdinand, and, at the same time, XhU infernal tribnnaL— 5jr Richard PhiUipt.

The establishment of this despotic order was redstod in France ; but it may perhaps surprise the reader that Sir John Howell, (recorder of London in I670,) in a speech, urged the necessity of setting up ao tnqnisiUon in England!

VjOOQ IC