The Hand of Providence

CHAPTER VIII
THE MORNING OF MODERN TIMES

LESSON FROM HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY—VICISSITUDES OF ROMAN CHURCH—BONIFACE POPE—ADVANCEMENT IN CIVILIZATION—WORK OF THE ROMAN CHURCH—INVENTION OF PRINTING—GUTENBERG—BIBLE FIRST PRINTED—COLUMBUS—HIS WONDERFUL DREAM—HIS GREAT VOYAGE—DISCOVERY OF AMERICA—TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS.

 
  "It breaks—it comes—the misty shadows fly:
A rosy radiance gleams upon the sky;
The mountain tops reflect it calm and clear,
The plain is yet in shade, but day is near."
 

—Chas. Mackay.

The fifteenth century may be justly considered the commencement of modern times; for then began the great revolution in science, religion and general knowledge, which has continued until the present time. The time-worn colossus of Rome was tottering under its own weight. Great princes filled the thrones of all the principal countries of Europe. The minds of men seemed awakening as from a sleep. A spirit of scientific research had seized the learned, and a desire for knowledge found its way even to the homes of the lowly.

In every grade of society a new life was in motion. "What an age!" exclaimed Huetton, the religious knight of Germany, "studies flourish, minds are awakening; it is a joy merely to be alive!"

The history of those times cannot be correctly told by a simple recital of facts. This truth should ever be acknowledged, that God is ever present on that vast theatre where successive generations of men meet and struggle. It is true He is unseen; and the unthinking multitude may pass heedlessly by. To the ignorant crowd, the history of the world presents a confused chaos; but to men of thought, it appears as a majestic temple on which the invisible hand of God is at work.

Modern minds might learn a lesson from heathen mythology. The name given by the ancient Greeks to the Deity shows that they had received some primeval revelation of this great truth. He was styled Zeus, or the life-giver to all that lives—to nations as well as individuals. From his inspirations Minos and other legislators professed to have received their laws; and on his altars kings and people swore their solemn oaths. This great truth is taught by one of the most beautiful fables of heathen mythology.

Thus Zeus, the life-giving principle is the father of Clio, the muse of history, whose mother is Mnemosyne, or memory. History then is the memory of men's acts and God's providences, and combines a heavenly with an earthly nature. She is the daughter of God and man; but, alas, the purblind philosophy of the nineteenth century has not attained to the lofty views of heathen wisdom!

What a startling fact, that men brought up amid the glorious light of the present age should deny that divine intervention in human affairs which even the very heathens admitted!

The beginning of the fifteenth century finds Boniface IX., on the pontifical throne. During his reign the papal power culminated and began to decline.

No empire of ancient or modern times has experienced such marvelous and varied vicissitudes, as those which have befallen the empire of the Roman church. Born in obscurity and reared in adversity, that church nevertheless succeeded in climbing to a loftier throne and grasping the scepter of a more absolute dominion than either a Xerxes or an Alexander could boast. Pretending to despise mere worldly gains, she cunningly turned the channels of riches towards herself, and emptied them without scruple into her own coffers.

When Boniface ascended the papal throne, the authority of Rome was apparently greater than ever; but in reality it was much undermined by the advancing labors of civilization.

Society had made a great advance in the previous eight hundred years. In the seventh century, a cloud of more than Egyptian darkness overshadowed Europe. Then it was occupied by wandering savages; now it was organized into families, neighborhoods and cities. The seventh century left it full of bondmen; the fifteenth found it without a slave. Where there had been trackless forests there were now the abodes of civilized men. Instead of bloody chieftains drinking out of their enemies' skulls, there were grave professors teaching the laws of nature and the principles of science.

Nor was this all. Rome herself had a preparatory work to do, and had she confined herself to that work, and sought not to trammel the minds of men, she would have continued a blessing to the race. Never before in the history of the world was there such a system. From her central seat she could equally take in a hemisphere at a glance or examine the private life of any individual. In all Europe there was not a man too great or too obscure, too insignificant or too desolate for her. Surrounded by her solemnities every one received his name at her altar; her bells chimed at his marriage; and her knell tolled at his funeral. When even to his friends his lifeless corpse had become an offense, she received it into her consecrated ground, there to rest until the great reckoning day. In times of lawlessness and rapine, she sheltered the helpless from the tyrant, and made her sanctuaries a refuge for the despairing and oppressed, But like all man-made systems of religion, she failed by attempting to enforce fixed laws on society in the presence of higher truths and advancing civilization.

During all these centuries mankind had slowly but surely advanced and Abraham's seed, the Jews and Saracens, had been the leaders of that progress. Quietly the materials had been gathering until the whole continent was ripe for revolution.

Meanwhile God had raised up instruments, by which the commerce, politics and religious thought of Europe were completely changed.

In A. D. 1484, there were living in various parts of Europe three persons who were destined to set in motion these mighty movements. These were Gutenberg, Columbus and Luther. Around these men cluster many notable events; and a history of their lives and times would include some of the brightest pages in the annals of our race.

Gutenberg was then an old man living at Mentz, in Germany. His broad shoulders, well knit frame and strong arms showed that he was acquainted with labor, and capable of great endurance. His broad and full forehead indicated a man of reflective mind and inventive faculty. His keen, full grey eye revealed a soul full of earnestness, intelligence and power. He had conferred on mankind the most useful invention, since Cadmus, nearly three thousand years ago, taught the barbarian Greeks the art of writing. This invention was the art of printing, which has been such a mighty instrument for the transmission of thought, and the civilization of the world. The Saracens had already invented the art of making paper from linen rags. Previous to this, parchment was the only substance well adapted for writing upon. Paper-making and printing produced great changes in the manufacture of books. By the one, books were greatly cheapened, by the other, greatly multiplied. Thought could now be transmitted cheaply and swiftly in a thousand different directions. Priestcraft saw the danger, and, terrified lest truth should emerge, immediately attempted to control and restrain the press. At this time the art of printing was known to only five or six persons. It is curious to observe that even war was the means of quickening the growth and extension of this wonderful art. In 1462, the storming of Mentz dispersed Gutenberg and his co-workers and gave the secret to the world. In A. D. 1465, it appeared in Italy; in 1469, in France; in 1474, Caxton brought it to England, and in 1477 it was introduced in Spain.

Meanwhile Pope Alexander VI., excommunicated all printers not licensed by him, and an order was issued to burn all books not recommended by the papal authorities. But these frantic struggles of the powers of darkness were unavailing. Lovers of books were gratified by seeing them multiplied by thousands. The Bible was printed as early as 1454, and was followed shortly afterwards by other important books.

The power of the press continued to increase, until at the present time it is without doubt the most powerful aid to modern civilization.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century a profound ignorance prevailed concerning the western regions of the Atlantic. Its vast waters were regarded with awe and wonder; and though from time to time, pieces of carved wood and other relics of Indian skill had floated to the shores of the old world, giving to its wondering inhabitants evidences of land beyond the watery horizon, yet no one ventured to spread a sail and seek that land veiled in mystery and peril.

Columbus was the first who had the inspiration to conceive and the heroic courage to brave the mysteries of this perilous deep. He unfolded to the wandering gaze of the inhabitants of Europe a new hemisphere, and opened it to their spirit of discovery and enterprise—opened it also, alas, to their cupidity and cruelty!

Christopher Columbus was born in the city Genoa, about 1447, and became one of the most remarkable men of any land or time. Having carefully studied the sciences of geography and astronomy he became convinced that the earth was not flat, as most men then believed, but was really a vast globe or ball. He perceived that when the moon was eclipsed, the shadow which the earth cast upon the moon was round; and he reasoned that as the shadow was round, the object that made that shadow must be round also.

He visited the great Saracen schools in Spain, and there received additional proof of this truth. Spain, was then a great maritime nation, and there he conversed with great sea-captains whose voyages were already attracting the attention of the learned. He himself also made a voyage to far off Iceland, and possibly to Greenland, to which country the pope had already sent a bishop and several missionaries.

In A. D. 1485, when Columbus was about thirty-eight years of age he made his first application to the king of Portugal for aid in his great scheme of maritime discovery, but without success. He then successively applied to Spain, Genoa, Venice and England.

But the monarchs of Europe were under the control of Rome, and therefore too busy in aiding her religious persecutions to listen to the appeals of science.

Indeed in the very year in which Columbus made his first application, the Inquisition put to death nearly seventeen thousand persons, besides imprisoning thirty-two thousand more. Nor was this all, ninety-two thousand Jews had suffered confiscation of their property, and had been given the unenviable choice of death, banishment or perpetual slavery. And the Saracens, who had dwelt in Spain for more than seven hundred years, or nearly twice as long a time as has elapsed since the discovery of America, were expelled from the lands which they had so long cultivated and beautified, and from their cities which had so long led the world in the arts, sciences and general civilization.

One evening in the autumn of A. D. 1485, a man of majestic appearance, pale, care-worn, and though in the meridian of life, with silver hair, leading a little boy by the hand, asked alms at the gate of a Franciscan convent near Polos—not for himself, but only a little bread and water for his child. That man was Columbus, destined to startle the inhabitants of Europe with the discovery of a new continent. But he was obliged to wait until he could take advantage of the commercial rivalry of Spain and Portugal.

The trade of Eastern Asia had always been a source of immense wealth to the nations that had controlled it. For more than a thousand years Venice had held the keys to that commerce. As discoveries extended, other nations perceived the possibility of opening new routes to the East and thus rivalling the commercial greatness of Venice. One of these plans was to sail around the southern end of Africa, the other to sail directly westward across the Atlantic. It was plain to every thinking person that if India could be reached by sailing westward, maritime power would pass from the Mediterranean countries to those upon the Atlantic coast.

About this time Columbus had a wonderful dream, or vision. An unknown voice spoke to him, and said: "God will cause thy name to be wonderfully resounded throughout the earth; and will give thee the keys to the ocean which are held with strong chains." From this time forward, Columbus looked upon himself as chosen from among men to accomplish the purposes of heaven; to bring the ends of the earth together, that all nations, and peoples, and tongues might be united under the banner of the Redeemer.

Isabella and Ferdinand were then joint king and queen of Spain. Meanwhile, Columbus had gained many influential friends, among whom was a Jewish sea-faring family named Pinzon, and Luis de Santangel the spiritual adviser of Queen Isabella.

At this time Columbus seemed more likely to fall into the hands of the Inquisition and suffer for his heresy than to succeed in his great enterprise.

At this juncture Luis de Santangel obtained audience with the queen, and addressed her with all the energy of a man who speaks for the last time in behalf of a favored project. Isabella listened attentively, hesitated a moment and then pledged her jewels to raise the amount necessary for the expedition. Contemporary writers have been enthusiastic in their descriptions of Isabella: but time has sanctioned their eulogies. She is one of the purest and most beautiful characters on the pages of history.

At length, on the 17th of April, A. D. 1492, Columbus was ushered into the royal presence, and received his commission. Immediately he commenced preparations, and on the 3rd of August, 1492, set sail on his ever-memorable voyage. The expedition consisted of three small vessels: the Santa Maria, commanded by Columbus; the Pinta, by Martin Alonzo Pinzon; and the Nina, by Vincent Yanez Pinzon. "The Pinzons were doubly interested in this voyage, for while they sought for a new and profitable route of commerce, they doubtless also felt a desire to find an asylum for their persecuted Jewish brethren." (See Lovel's American History, Canadian edition.)

Having touched at the Canary Islands they sailed directly westward. On losing sight of the last trace of land the hearts of the crews failed them. Behind them was everything dear to the heart of man: country, family, friends, life itself; before them everything was chaos, mystery and peril.

Columbus tried in every way to soothe their distress and inspire them with his own glorious anticipations. He described to them the magnificent countries to which he was about to conduct them: the islands of the Indian seas, teeming with gold and precious stones; the regions of Mangi and Cathay with their cities of unrivalled wealth and splendor. Nor were these promises made for purposes of deception. Columbus evidently believed that he would realize them all.

For many days they were gently but speedily wafted over a tranquil sea, but when near the middle of the Atlantic, they, for the first time, observed the variation of the needle of the compass, which no longer pointed directly north, but had veered around and pointed in a somewhat different direction.

Columbus was greatly perplexed yet dared not communicate his thoughts to anyone. It seemed as if the very laws of nature were changing, as they advanced, and they were entering another world subject to unknown influences; that the compass was about to lose its mysterious virtue, and without that guide what was to become of them on a vast and trackless ocean? Columbus gave an explanation of this phenomenon which satisfied the crew though unsatisfactory to himself. His situation was daily becoming more critical in proportion as they approached the regions where he expected to find land. At length, on the 9th of October, the crew broke out in open mutiny and threatened to throw him overboard, designing then to return to Spain. A compromise was effected, that if they would continue to sail westward three days longer, and no land was discovered he would then return. Two days passed away and still no sight of land.

On the evening of the second day, Columbus remained on deck. What were the feelings that pervaded his breast no one but God can tell; with nothing but the heaving ocean beneath him and the silent stars o'er head. Anxiously he stands upon the prow of his vessel and peers into the darkness. It is one o'clock! Suddenly a gleam as of a torch is seen in the horizon! Is it a flash of phosphoric light as is sometimes seen on the surface of these tropical seas, or is it a blaze of fire indicating the habitations of men?

Soon the joyful cry of "Ho! land, ho!" resounded throughout the ship, and the booming of cannon announced the discovery to the other vessels.

When the dawning of the morning came, they beheld in all their grandeur and beauty, the hills and valleys, streams and forests of a new world. The men who had been so lately mutinous now came forward and bowed down before Columbus, and did homage to him as though he were a god.

Trials before triumphs have ever been the lot of self-taught men, and will be to the end of time. If the chosen heroes of this earth were counted over, they would be found to be men who stood alone and labored and waited; while those for whom they agonized and toiled poured upon them contumely and scorn.

The very martyrs of the past who were hooted at, reviled and spit upon by the mob, are the ones who are honored now. They suffered cruel tortures and burnings; to-day, the children of this generation are gathering up their scattered ashes to deposit them in the golden urn of a nation's history.

CHAPTER IX
INFLUENCE OF ISRAEL—DISCOVERERS AND REFORMERS

HISTORY IN WORDS—BRITISH COAT OF ARMS—THE TEN TRIBES—ACCOUNT OF ESDRAS—DISPERSION OF THE TRIBES—MIXED SEED OF ISRAEL—EFFECT ON EUROPEAN SOCIETY—JEWISH INFLUENCE—DISCOVERY OF CAPE OF GOOD HOPE—PACIFIC OCEAN DISCOVERED—MAGELLAN'S VOYAGE—DISCOVERS CAPE HORN—DISTANCE SAILED—DEATH OF MAGELLAN—VOYAGE COMPLETED—ITS EFFECT ON THE PUBLIC—HUSS AND JEROME BURNED—JOHN ZISKA—PERSECUTIONS OF WALDENSES—CAPTURE OF MENTZ—DISPERSION OF PRINTERS—HANS BOHEIM—JOSS FRITZ—SALE OF INDULGENCES—MARTIN LUTHER BURNS THE POPE'S LETTER—GRAND COUNCIL AT WORMS—ROME IN A RAGE—LUTHER KIDNAPPED.

One of the most pleasing and at the same time instructive amusements in which a thoughtful mind can engage, is to trace the derivation of certain words of our language to the primitive times and people where they originated, and thus learn the social and mental condition of the people who first used them. It is pleasing to know that dish and mop, mat and rug, and other household terms are the very words that were spoken by the women of ancient Britain, two thousand years ago, and have been handed down from generation to generation, with little or no variation. In like manner the words ax, plow, house, post, bed, fire, and hundreds of others, can be easily discerned under the old Saxon forms. And as these words are precisely those that would be used by a rude or half-civilized people, while those words that refer to a more advanced state of society cannot be traced to our Saxon ancestors we may correctly infer the extent of their knowledge and social condition. Further, as the ancient British words refer to domestic affairs while those of Saxon origin refer exclusively to the avocations of man, we can easily perceive that the Anglo-Saxon tongue has originated from the marriage of the ancient British women with their Saxon conquerors.

Hence Max Muller, the learned professor of languages, in the university at Oxford, England, very justly remarks that "by means of philology we have a more accurate record of our race than any narrative written by prejudice or ill-informed historians."

Now it is generally admitted that Germans, Anglo-Saxons and men descended from these nationalities, in one word, German thought, led the van of progress in science, literature and religious thought, during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and in fact has continued to do so up to the present time.

From the fifth century, when Attila, king of the Huns, declared himself "The scourge of God," wave after wave of conquest by these hardy warriors had swept over the hills and plains of western and southern Europe, until their blood and their love of civil and religious liberty were infused into every European nation.

Now the language of the Goths, or ancient Germans, plainly indicates that they were not the primitive people of Europe, but had conquered and intermingled with them in the same manner as the Saxons conquered and intermingled with the inhabitants of ancient Britain, or the Spaniards with those of Mexico.

But it may be asked, whence came they? In this connection two other questions may also be asked: why is it that the German language contains so many idioms and terms that bear a close relationship to the language of the ancient Hebrews and Chaldeans? (See Max Muller's lectures on language.) And why is it that the lion, which was the emblem of Judah, and the unicorn, which was the emblem of Israel, are in modern times, emblazoned on the coat of arms of England? (See Ant. of Jews by Josephus, also Num. xxiii., 22 and Deut. xxxiii, 17.) These questions are worthy of deep and careful consideration; and to better understand them it will be necessary to briefly trace the history of the children of Israel.

As is well known, after the death of Solomon the kingdom was divided into two parts, known as the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. In 730 B. C, Hashem, king of Israel, became tributary to Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. Nine years later his capital was taken and the greater portion of the people were carried away captive beyond the river Euphrates, and people from other countries were put in possession of their inheritance. In the Apocrypha the Prophet Esdras states that these ten tribes went a journey of a year and a half into the north country. He says: "These are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Hosea the king, whom Shalmaneser the king of Assyria led away captive; and he carried them over the waters so they came into another land. But they took this council among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen and go forth into a farther country where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes which they never kept in their own land. For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, in a year and a half's journey, and the same region is called Arsareth." (II. Esdras, xiii, 40, 41, 42 and 45.)

Now by looking on a map of the eastern continent it will be seen at once that the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains lie directly north of the river Euphrates. It is quite possible that the Black Sea is the "waters" to which Esdras refers. Also Josephus, in speaking of the return of the Jews under Esdras, says, "Many of them took their effects with them and came to Babylon, as very desirous of going down to Jerusalem, but then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country, wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude and not to be estimated by numbers." (Ant. Book II. chapter 5.)

Perhaps the words of the ancient Roman are not altogether fable when he says that "Beyond the Borean (Caucasus) Mountains live a people who are sublime in their virtue since they dwell very distant form the provinces, in great simplicity and give great heed to the oracles which their gods have given unto them." Thus we have not only the sure word of prophecy, but likewise the admission of heathen writers.

Max Muller, in his work on language, in referring to the migrations of ancient European tribes, says, "Two great routes lay before them, one by way of the valleys of the Don and Volga across modern Russia to the shores of the Baltic, the other along the shores of the Black Sea to the valley of the Danube."

He also demonstrates the close relationship that exists between the Hebrew language and the language of the people of Finland in western Russia. Considering that more than twenty-five centuries have rolled by since the dispersion of Israel, sufficient time has elapsed for mighty changes. Muller adds in another place, "The time was when the ancestors of the Indians, the Fins, the Slavonic and German tribes of central Europe and the modern English lived in one enclosure, nay, under the same roof."

In the latter part of the second century or beginning of the third, these new settlers had spread as far westward as the Danube, and settled in the Roman province of Dacia, which lay on the north bank of that river. They also asked permission to cross the river which was granted under certain stipulations.

Still they continued to increase in numbers, and by inter-marriage with the native tribes had in the fifth century become formidable enemies of Rome and under the name of Dacians, Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Suevi and Heruli precipitated themselves upon Italy and wreaked a terrible vengeance.

The history of some of these, as the Huns for example, may be traced to the second century before the Christian era and to the very locality indicated by the Prophet Esdras and by Josephus. For over twenty-six centuries these scattered tribes have continued to mix up with the nations of the earth, but in their long migrations westward they have lost many of their distinctive characteristics.

Doubtless it is from this mixed seed of Israel that many, aye nearly all, the great reformers, inventors and discoverers have sprung. This infusion of new blood had a marked effect on the nations of western Europe, but more especially on Italy, which had continued to decline, from the days of Augustus, until these nations mingled with the degenerate ancient race, and infused new life into her decaying civilization. The result was that a succession of poets, painters, sculptors, philosophers, inventors and discoverers sprung up in Italy and western Europe unparalleled in the history of the world. Above all, the invention of printing had just come in time to spread whatever new ideas were afloat, with a rapidity never known before. In fifty-two years from the time of that invention came the discovery of America. Five years later two Jewish priests, Rabbi Abraham, and Rabbi Joseph, brought to King John II., of Portugal, a Saracen map of the entire coast of Africa.

Thus instructed King John sent out several expeditions in one of which Brazil was accidentally discovered. Aided by this, Vasco de Gama set sail, and on Nov. 20th, 1497, rounded the cape of Good Hope. Sixteen years later Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, and six years still later, or in A. D. 1519, Magellan set out on his memorable voyage to circumnavigate the world.

The story of that voyage of wild adventure seems never to grow old by repeating. The narrative of that voyage is too long for this brief sketch, but a few items may not be out of place.

After many months of sailing in strange seas, he at length discovered a new land to which he gave the name of Patagonia. Here he found giants clad in skins, one of whom was greatly terrified at seeing his own image in a looking-glass.

His perseverance was at last rewarded, and after fifteen months of struggling and adventures he discovered Cape Horn, passed through the strait which now bears his name and entered the Great South Sea, on Nov. 28th, 1520. An eye-witness relates that he shed tears of joy when he recognized its great expanse, and that God had brought him where he might grapple with its unknown dangers. Admiring its placid surface he courteously gave it the name it will ever bear, the "Pacific Ocean." Magellan was the first European to discover that when the nights are long in the northern hemisphere they are correspondingly short in the southern. When he passed through the straits the nights were only four hours long. At the same time in Spain they were nearly fifteen hours long. And now the great sailor having burst through the barrier of the great American continent steered for the north-west. For three months and fifteen days he sailed on and on, but saw no inhabited land.

He and his crew were compelled by famine to soak old leather in the sea, then boil it and make of it a wretched food; and to drink water that had become putrid by keeping; yet he resolutely held his course, though his men were dying daily. He estimated that he sailed over this unknown sea more than twelve thousand miles.

In the whole history of human undertakings there is nothing that exceeds, if indeed there is anything that equals, this voyage of Magellan. That of Columbus dwindles away in comparison. It is a display of super-human courage and perseverance, an exhibition of heroic resolution, not to be diverted from its purpose by any motive, or any suffering, but inflexibly persisting to its end.

This unparalleled resolution met its reward at last. He reached the Ladrones, a group of islands north of the equator. Thence he sailed to the Spice Islands, where he met with European merchants. He had accomplished his object and proven that the earth was round. At an island called Zebu, or Mutan, he was murdered either by the natives or by his own men. In a few days more his crew learned that they were actually in the vicinity of their friends. On the morning of Nov. 8th, 1521, they entered Tidore, the capital of the Spice Islands, and the king swore upon the Koran alliance to the sovereign of Spain.

Magellan's crew continued their voyage amid hardships and perils, and at length, on Sept. 10th, 1522, the good ship, San Vittoria, sailed into the very port from which she had departed just three years and twenty-seven days before. She had accomplished the greatest achievement in the history of the human race. She had circumnavigated the earth. Magellan lost his life in his great enterprise, but he made his name immortal. His lieutenant Sebastian d'Elcano received the proudest and noblest medal ever given to a sailor. It was a golden globe belted with this inscription, Primus circumdedisti me—"Thou hast first circumnavigated me."