Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/576

 lUGHA S.

Diutor on many worka and publications. Strangers, visitinKFlorence, atared at him as something miracu- lous. He not only knew all the volumea m the li- bpiry, as well ae every other possible work, but oould also t«U the pa^ and paraxraph in which

any

the page and paraxrapn m wtuch was an eccentric old bachelor, negli- gent, dirty, slov- enly, always reek- ing with tobacco, engBfed in study at all hours, even at his meals, a Diogenea in hia re- quirements. Ef^ry room in hia house, and even the cor- ridors and stairs, were crowded with books. He died at the monastery of Sta. Maria No- \-ella. He left hia books (30,000 volumea) to the Grand Duke to be used as a public librarj'i his fortune went to the poor. The Magiiabtdnana was combined with the grand-ducal private library {PaJaHna) by Kin^ Victor Emmanuel in 1861, the two forming the Bibh- oteca Nationtdt.
 * uiTea. In private Ufe Hagliabechi

Salvini. DtUe todi di Antonio Mofliabrrhi (Flatcnce. 1715); Clarorum Bdoarum. Omnonorum, Vtntlonim ad A. Maelia- bechium nonnitUoe^ue aliot fjjiMola, I-V (Fldrenc?. I745-Q), ed, TABRlOKI-ToMETn: Cololoew codicum saculo XV. impreuo- rum. Qui m bibliotht&t Maotiabechiana Fiorentur adsrrvanlur, I-III (FlotBDce. 1703-5): J^cnin. Alia. Gddijtmlfx.. Ill (Leipiia. 1751). 38-0; Valert, Corrapcndanrc infditc dt Mabaion d dt: Mmttdium opm rilalic.l-IU |Psru, 1847): Nauv, Biogr. Bfnirale, ». v.; Buck in ZenlralblaU filr fiiUio- tliek'urtrn. XV (Lcipiis. 1608), 97-101; Lctira dr MtnoQt A

MaglUUirchx (Paris. 18U1), with Lntroductioa by Pei,

Axon, AnlntiiB MagliabKhi ia ''"'- '■' ' •■■•■' —

V (Londmi. 1003). 59-78.

Klgmbns Luffleb.

modifications by Hem? Ill in 1216, 1217, and 1225.

The Magna Carta has long been considered by the English-speaking peoples as the earliest of the great constitutional documents which give the history of England so unique a character; it has even been apf^en of by some great authorities as the "founda- tion of our liberties". That the charter enjoyed an exaggerat«d reputation in the days of Coke and of Blackatone, no one will now deny, and a more accu- rate knowledge of the meaning of its different provi- siona baa shown that a number of them used to be interpreted quite erroneously. When allowance, how- ever, has been made for the mistakes due to aeveral centuries of indiscriminating admiration, the charter remains an astonishingly complete record of the limi- tationa placed on the Crown at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and an impressive illustia- tion of what ia perhaps a national capacity for put- ting resistance to arbitrary government on a legal

The memories of feudal excess during the reign of Stephen were strong enough and universal enough to give Henry 11 twenty years of internal peaoe for the establishment of bis masterful administration, and, even when the barons tried to "wrest the club from Hereulea " in 117:S-i, they trusted largely to the odium which the king had incurred from the murder of St. Thomas. The revolt failed and the Angevin system was stronger than ever, so strong indeed that it was able to maintain its existence, and even to develop its operations, during the absence of Richard I. The heavy taxation of his reign and the constant encroach- ments of royal justice roused a feeling among the

barons which showed itself in a demand for their " ri^t8"put forward at John's accession. It is indeed

obvious that, quite apart from acts of individual injus- tice, the royal administration was attacking in every direction the traditional rights of the barons, and not theira oidy. St. Thomas had aaved the independence of the Church, and it now remained for the other seo-

Angevins, for to them feudalism ia the enemy; and the increase of the royal power, to be checked later on by a jiarliamentary system, is tbc clear line of constitutional development; but, however satisfac- tory we may think the ultimate result, there Was the immediate danger of a rule which was arbitrary and might be tyrannical. The king had acquired a power which he might abuse, and the acts of the reign of John are sufficiently on record to show how much a bad lung could do before he became intolerable. Those who drew up the Great Charter never pretended to be for- mulating a syllabus of fundamental principles, nor was it a code any more than it was a declaration of rights. It was a rehearsal of traditional principlea and practices which had been violated by John, and the universality of its scope is the measure of the king's misgovern ment.

During the early part of John's reign the loss of the greater part of his French possessions discredit«d him, and led to constant demands for money. Scutage, which had originally been an alternative for military service occasionally permitted, became practically a new annual tax, while finea were exact^ from indi- viduals on many pretexts and by arbitrary means. Any sign of resistance was followed by a demand for a son as a hostage, an intensely irritating practice which continued throughout the reign. The quarrel with Innocent HI and the interdict (1206-13) followed hard on the foreign collapse, and during ttiat period John's hand lay so heavily on churchmen that Uie lay barons had a temporary respite from taxation, though not from ill-government. When peace was finally made with the pope, the king seems to have thought that the Church would now support him against the mutiuouB barons of the North; but he counted without the new archbishop. Langton showed from the first that he intended to enforce the clause in John's submission to the pope which promised a gen- eral reform of abuses, and nia support provided the cause with the statesmanlike leaderanip it had hitherto lacked.

The discontented barons met at St. Albans and St. Paul's in 1213, and Langton produced the Char- ter of Henry I to act as a model for their demands. Civil war was deferred by John's absence abroad, but the defeat of Bouvines sent him back still more dis- credited, and war practically broke out early in 1215, Special charters ^nted to the Church and to London failed to divide hia enemies, and John had to meet the "Army ctf God and Holy Church" on the field of Ruimymede between Staines and Windsor. He gave way on nearly every point, and peace was concluded probably on 19 June. The charter which was then sealed was really a treaty of peace, though in form it was a grant of liberties.

The clauses, or chapters, of the Magna Carta are not arranged on any logical plan, and a number of systems of classification have been suggested, but, without attempting to summariie a document ao com- plex, it may be sufficient here to point out the general character erf the liberties which it guaranteed. In the openine clause the "freedom" of the Church was secured, and that vague phrase was defined at least in one direction by a special mention of canonical elec- tion to bishoprics. Of the remaining sixty clauses the largest class is that dealing directly with the abuses from which the baronage had suffered, fixing th« amount of reliets, protecting heira and ^tWssw^^as^