I. CHAP. lants, or whippers. It was their peculiar felicity not only to know, that the mortality had been sent in punishment of sin, but to be in possession of the only means by which the remission of sin could be effected. Divided into companies of male and female devotees, under a leader and two masters, they stripped themselves naked to the waist, and publicly scourged themselves or each other, till their shoulders were covered with blood. This expiatory ceremony was repeated every morning and afternoon for thirty-three days, equal in number to the years which Christ is thought to have lived upon earth; after which they returned to their former employments, cleansed from sin by "the 66 baptism of blood." The flagellants appeared first in Hungary; but missionary societies were soon formed, and they hastened to impart the knowledge of this new gospel to foreign nations. 101 They spread with rapidity over Poland, Germany, and the Low Countries. From France they were excluded at the request of the pope, who had issued a severe constitution against them :102 but a colony reached England, 101 Johnes' Froiss. ii. 263. Bzov. ad ann. 1349. 102 L'Evesque has given us two stanzas of one of their hymns, p. 531. They run in the following strain : Through love of man the Saviour came, He suffered want, reproach, and shame, O! think then on thy Saviour's pain, And lash the sinner, lash again. and landed in London to the amount of one hundred and twenty men and women. Each day at the appointed hour they assembled, ranged themselves in two lines, and moved slowly through the streets, scourging their naked shoulders, and chanting a sacred hymn. At a known signal all, with the exception of the last, threw themselves flat on the ground. He, as he passed by his companions, gave each a lash, and then also lay down. The others followed in succession, till every individual in his turn had received a stroke, from the whole brotherhood. The citizens gazed and marvelled, pitied and commended: but they ventured no farther. Their faith was too weak; or their feelings were too acute and they allowed the strangers to monopolize to themselves this novel and extraordinary grace. The missionaries made not a single proselyte, and were compelled to return home with the barren satisfaction of having done their duty in the face of an unbelieving generation. 103 103 Wals. 169. Avesb. 179, 180. Murim. 103. Stow, 246. CHAP. I. CHAP. II. EDWARD III. RENEWAL OF THE WAR IN FRANCE-VICTORY OF POITIERS- RELEASE OF KING JOHN-WHO RETURNS TO ENGLAND BLACK ned CHAP. EDWARD had now awaked from the dream of II. Renewal of the war Convinced^by his ambition. Convinced by experience that the French crown lay beyond his reach, he ofin France. fered to renounce his pretensions in exchange for the sovereignty of the provinces, which he held as a vassal in his own right, and in the right of his queen. By Philip the proposal was rejected with scorn: John, his son and successor, discovered, perhaps feigned, a willingness to accept it. When the envoys of the two powers met at Guisnes to prolong the armistice, they agreed that such an arrangement offered the only basis on which could be founded the hope of a permanent peace: and promises were given and received, that the necessary renunciations on each side should be made in the II. presence of the new pontiff, Innocent IV.; that CHAP. the prelates and barons of both kingdoms should signify their assent; and that each monarch should subject himself and his dominions to the censures of the pope, in case he should ever violate the treaty. But this prospect, so consoling to the friends of humanity, was closed by the pride of the French people. The prelates and barons of England sent their procurators with full powers to the court of Innocent: but those of France declared that they would never suffer their king to surrender a sovereignty, which formed the brightest jewel in the French crown. Edward complained of the bad faith of his adversary: indignation urged him again to arms and a plan of combined operations was concerted between him and his eldest son, now called, from the colour of his arms, the black prince. The latter opened the campaign with an army of sixty thousand men. The orders issued to the soldiers were to pillage, burn, and destroy and that they might extend their ravages over a wider tract of country; they were divided into several "battles," with directions to keep, during the march, at a certain distance from each other. From the walls of Bourdeaux the prince led his plunderers through the county of Armagnac to the foot of the Pyrenees: and turning to the north continued his devas 1 Rym. v. 794-799. 808. 816. Knyght. 2607. Wals. 170. Murim. 105. 1355. II. CHAP. tations till he arrived before the city of Toulouse. Two days were spent in fruitless attempts to provoke the enemy to a battle: on the third he passed the Garonne by a ford, resumed his destructive career, and gave to the flames the great and wealthy cities of Carcassone, and Narbonne. But the measures which had been taken to assemble a numerous army in his rear, admonished him to return. The enemy retired at his approach: the English, loaden with plunder, marched back to Bourdeaux ; and the young Edward could boast, that in the short space of seven weeks he had laid in ashes more than five hundred cities, towns, and villages, in a populous district, which for a century had not been visited with the horrors of war.2 During this expedition the king of England marched from Calais at the head of a gallant army: but all his plans were disconcerted by the superior policy of John, who cautiously shunned an engagement, but was careful, as he retired before his adversary, to lay waste the country around him. The English had not reached Amiens, when the want of provisions compelled them to return. A scanty supply was 2 See the official account in Avesbury, 210-226. Carcassone was as large as York, Narbonne but little less than London. Ibid. 220. The pretext for such devastations was that the French king drew a considerable part of his revenue from these provinces, and that by ravaging them his means of continuing the war would be proportionably abridged. Ibid. |