PERIOD VIII.

The period of the Reformation; extending from the Taking of Constantinople, 1453 years A. C., to the Edict of Nantes, 1598 years A. C.

TURKISH EMPIRE.

SECT. 1. The history of the Turkish Empire, at this era, is signalized by the taking of Constantinople, and the consequent extinction of the Eastern Empire of the Romans, 1453. The Turks effected the object under Mahomet the Great, the Turkish Sultan.

Constantine was the name of the last emperor of the East, as it was also the name of the first. His dominions had become exceedingly circumscribed. The Turks had gradually encroached upon its borders, and Constantinople would soon have become the seat of the Ottoman power, had they not been obliged to defend themselves against the Tartars.

Mahomet II., after some delay, commenced the project which had long engaged the attention of the Turks. The indolent inhabitants of Constantinople, made but a feeble preparation for defence, and all Europe was supine and indifferent. The city was assailed both by sea and land-the walls were battered down with cannon, and all who opposed were massacred. The emperor was slain, and the city soon surrendered. The Turks forbore to destroy the imperial edifices, and the churches were converted into mosques. The exercise of their religion, however, was allowed to all the christians, and they have, till lately, chosen their own patriarch. The Eastern empire, from the building of is capital, had subsisted 1123 years.

After the fall of Constantinople, Greece and Epirus were subdued; and Italy might probably have shared a similar fate, but for the fleet of the Venetians, who opposed the arms of Mahomet with considerable success but peace was soon concluded between the hostile powers. The death of Ma homet the Great, occurred 1481.

§ Mahomet was a youth of only about twenty-one years, when he undertook the project of The force with which lef extinguishing the empire of the East. Constantinople, was fully adequate to the object, being nearly three hundred thousand men; while the whole population of that city, did not amount to more than one hundred thousand.

The Greeks, notwithstanding their degeneracy, displayed considerable bravery. Their all was at stake, and a small but faithful band adhered to Constantine, till they were nearly annihilated. Seeing his dearest friends fall by his side, and himself at last remaining, surrounded only by enemies, he exclaimed in the bitterness of grief, "Has death then made such havoc, that not one Christian is left to take my life?" As he spoke, a Turk to whom his person was unknown, for he had prudently laid aside the purple, struck him in the face; a second blow succeeded from another hand; and he fell, in the forty-ninth year of his age, a glorious example of honourable resolution, in expiring with his defenders, rather than surviving them.

9. Mahomet liberally patronized the arts and sciences; and to compensate for the migration of those learned Greeks, who, on the fall of the empire, spread themselves over the countries of Europe, invited both artists and men of letters to his capital from other kingdoms.

The successors of this sovereign during the remainder of the present period, were Bajazet II., Selim I., Solyman I., Selim II., Amurath III., and Mahomet III. .

§ Bajazet II., prosecuted various wars against the Hungarians, Venetians, Persians, and Saracens, but having resigned the govern ment to his son, who had revolted and was supported by the Janizaries, he was soon after poisoned by the order of the latter.

His son and successor, Selim I., was a prosperous, but tyrannical prince; who, in 1517, conquered Egypt, Aleppo, Antioch, Tripoli, Damascus, and Gaza.

Solyman I., surnamed the Magnificent, succeeded Selim in 1520; and was one of the most accomplished, enterprising, successful, and warlike of the Turkish princes. He took Buda, and besieged Vienna. From the latter place, however, he was obliged to retire with the loss of eighty thousand men.co

Selim II., his son, besieged and took Cyprus and Tunis; but his fleet was defeated at Lepanto, with the capture or destruction of almost all his ships.

Amurath III. strangled his five brothers immediately upon his accession. This prince extended his dominions by the addition of Raab in Hungary, and of Tibris in Persia. In this reign, the Janizaries having lost their submission, and in great part, their discipline, began to kill their commanders, whenever they were dissatisfied with them.

His son, Mahomet III. was a monster of barbarity, having begun *al

his reign by strangling his nineteen brothers, and drowning ten of his father's wives. He finally put to death his eldest son, a prince of estimable qualities, on an unfounded suspicion of ambitious views,

ITALIAN STATES.

2. We shall pursue the history of Italy, by giving an ac count of only two or three of the States of which it was composed. The events in the Italian history are not politically important at this era. It is chiefly in reference to the influence of Florence on the literature of the times, and the ecclesiastical influence of the Papal dominions, that these portions of Italy will be brought more particularly into view. Florence, under the Medici, enjoyed a high degree of splendour, during this period. It was an era, in the cultivation of the sciences and elegant arts. The family of the Medici held sway in this country from the year 1428 to 1569, when Cosmo de Medici the Great was entitled Grand Duke of Tuscany. Under the title of the Republic of Florence, Which they governed, were included not only Tuscany, of which Florence is the capital, but Modena, Mantua, and one or two other states.

No

Cosmo de Medici died in 1464, who, though the private subject of a republic, had more riches than any king in Europe, and laid out more money in works of taste, learning, and charity, than all the kings, princes, and states, of that or the subsequent age, the individuals of his own family excepted. His religious foundations were unrivalled. His private buildings were equally sumptuous. palace in Europe at that time exceeded his in Florence. He had besides many others. With all this public magnificence and expendi ture, he was in his private conversation, humble and unassuming; and in his person plain and modest. He was not celebrated for learning, though he was the greatest patron of learned men of his

age.

Cosmo was succeeded in the government by his son Peter, and he by his sons Lorenzo and Giuliano. The latter was soon murdered, and Lorenzo died aged no more than fifty-four years, illustrious like his predecessors, in every public and private virtue.

The tranquillity of the republic was much disturbed by wars with the Venetians and Genoese, for many years. In the course of these commotions, Florence assumed the popular government, but it was quickly reversed by the emperor Charles V., who, laying siege to the city, forced it to capitulate, and restored the family of the Medici. Cosmo, the second of that name, now (1537) succeeded to the ducal crown, which he wore with honour, during thirty-eight years. The encouragement he gave to the practice and study of all the fine arts,

proves him to have been one of the greatest patrons of human gentus, since the days of Augustus. The names of his sons were John and Garcia. The latter was of a furious, vindictive disposition, and quarrelling one day with his brother, stabbed him to the heart with a dagger. The father charged him with the murder, but the youth denying it, was introduced into the room where the body lay, which is said to have bled, (doubtless by chance,) at his approach. He then threw himself at his father's feet, and confessed his guilt. The father, who had resolved on the part he was to act, solemnly desired his son to prepare for death, adding, that he ought to think himself happy in losing a life he was unworthy to enjoy, by the hands of him who gave it. He then unsheathed the dagger with which the cardinal had been murdered, and plunged it into the bosom of his

son.

3. That part of Italy which constitutes the dominions of his holiness, became the scene of much crime and contention during this period. Both the temporal and spiritual power of the popes, was now at its height. In 1498, the papacy was enjoyed by Alexander VI., a monster of wickedness. Charles VIII., of France, had resolved on an expedition into Italy. The pope and the duke of Milan, who encouraged him in it, immediately betrayed him, and joined the interest of the king of Naples, who was the object of attack on the part of Charles. The latter, however, now first besieged the pope in Rome, and forced him to submission, but at length devoutly kissed his feet. He then marched against Naples, while its timid prince, Alphonso, fled to Sicily, after absolving his subjects from their allegiance. Charles entered Naples in triumph, but lost his new kingdom almost as soon as he had gained it. A league was formed against Charles, be tween the pope, the emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand of Arragon, Isabella of Castile, and the Venetians; and on his return to France, the troops he had left to guard his conquests, were all driven from Italy...

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§ It has been remarked, that from the decisive effect of this confederacy, the sovereigns of Europe derived a useful lesson of policy, and first adopted the idea of preserving a balance of power, by that tacit league, which is understood to be always subsisting, for the prevention of the co-ordinate aggrandizement of any particular state.

History relates with horror, the crimes of Alexander VI., and his son Cæsar Borgia; their murders, robberies, profanations, and incests. They compassed their ends in attaining every object of their ambition, but with the universal abhorrence of mankind. Their death seems to have been a sort of retribution for their crimes, so far as retribution is known on earth.

If an author, Guicciardini, who was a mortal enemy to Alexander, may be believed, Borgia had sent a present of some flasks of poisoned wine to the cardinal of Corneto, in whose garden they proposed to sup, but ordered the servant to give none of it to any person. Alexander soon after coming into the garden, and calling for wine before supper, the servant gave him some from the poisoned flasks, thinking the prohibition could not extend to the Pope, however rare and valuable the wine might be; and Borgia, in the mean time appearing, unconsciously drank of the same wine with his father. They both immediately felt the symptoms of the poison, and Alexander died the next day; but Borgia, having drank his wine much diluted, survived with the loss of his skin and hair. He was afterwards stripped of all his possessions by Pope Julius II., and at last perished in miserable obscurity in Spain.

FRANCE.

Branch of Valois.-Branch of Orleans.

4. Louis XI., began to reign in 1461. He immediately removed all his late father's ministers, proceeded to humble the nobles, and in almost every respect acted the tyrant towards his subjects. Indeed, his character is that of a most deceitful, profligate and cruel prince; he followed too nearly the odious Tiberius in his measures. He left, however, some good regulations for the encouragement of commerce, and for the effectual administration of justice. Notwithstanding the odiousness of his character, he was the first of the French kings, on whom the title of His most Christian Majesty was conferred. § His severity occasioned a revolt of several of the first lords of the kingdom. The war which thence arose, they entitled "the war of the public good." His sanguinary disposition is evidenced by the following fact. When he pronounced sentence of death on a certain nobleman, he ordered that his infant children should be placed beneath the scaffold, to be sprinkled by the blood which gushed from the body of their parent. This was an almost incredible) instance of refined cruelty, and cold barbarity. Louis died a victim of superstitious terror and remorse of conscience.

5. Charles VIII., surnamed the Affable, at the age of thirteen succeeded his father, under the regency of years, Anne of France, his sister, 1483. His marriage with Anne. of Brittany, who was promised to Maximilian of Austria, occasioned a short war with the Germans. His expedition into Italy, and his conquest and subsequent loss of Naples have already been noticed in the Italian history. He reigned about fifteen years.