Cicero de Officiis, 1465.
Tully's Offices, 1465-66, Bodleian and other libraries.
Roman characters at Rome, 1467.
Caxton sets up a press at London, 1471.
De Civitate Dei, 1473.
Aesop's Fables, by Caxton, first book with numbered pages, 1474.
Aldus cast the Greek alphabet and printed a Greek book, 1476.
Aldus introduced italics, 1476.
The Pentateuch in Hebrew, 1482.
Homer in folio, by Demetrius of Florence, 1488.
The Complutensian Polyglot of Cardinal Ximenes, in 1517.
The exact conformity of different copies of the book taken by Faustus for sale in Paris gave rise to the report of his being in league with Satan, and was the origin of the popular story of his attendant demon.
The Mentz printers, in order that the art might not be divulged, administered an oath of secrecy to all whom they employed; this appears to have been strictly adhered to until the year 1462, at which period the city was sacked and plundered by Archbishop Adolphus of Nassau; its
ernor; it now constituted a part of a bishopric.
Florida del Inca, Vega, l. l. c II. Ens. Cron.
d. i. Año Mdxvi.
The expedition of Francisco Fernandez, of Cordova,
1517 leaving the port of Havana, and sailing west by south, discovered in 1517 the province of Yucatan and the
Chap. II} 1517. Bay of Campeachy.
He then turned his prow to the north; but, at a place where he had landed for supplies of water, his company was suddenly assailed, and he himself mortally wounded.
In 1518, th1517. Bay of Campeachy.
He then turned his prow to the north; but, at a place where he had landed for supplies of water, his company was suddenly assailed, and he himself mortally wounded.
In 1518, the pilot whom Fernandez had employed
1518. conducted another squadron to the same shores; and Grijalva, the commander of the fleet, explored the coast from Yucatan towards Panuco.
The masses of gold which he brought back, the rumors of the empire of Montezuma, its magnificence and its extent, heedlessly confirmed by the costly presents of the unsuspecting natives, were sufficient to inflame the coldest imagination, and excited the enterprise of Cortes.
The voyage did not reach beyond the bound
y VII., as a Catholic, could not wholly disregard the bull of the pope, which gave to Spain a paramount title to the North American world; and as a prince he sought a counterpoise to France in an intimate Spanish alliance, which he hoped to confirm by the successive marriage of one of his sons after the other to Catharine of Aragon, youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella.
Henry VIII., on his accession, surrendered to his father-in-law the services of Sebastian Cabot.
Once, perhaps in 1517, the young king promoted a voyage of discovery, but it tooke no full effect.
To avoid interference with Spain, Robert Thorne, of Bristol, who had long resided in Seville, proposed voyages to the east by way of the north; believing that there would be found an open sea near the pole, over which, during the arctic continuous day, Englishmen might reach the land of spices without travelling half so far as by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.
In 1527 an expedition, favored by Henry VIII.
and
pacious courtiers, should have readily granted licenses to the Flemings to transport Negroes
1516. to the colonies?
The benevolent Las Casas, who had seen the native inhabitants of the New World vanish away, like dew, before the cruelties of the Spaniards, who felt for the Indians all that an ardent charity and the purest missionary zeal could inspire, and who had seen the African thriving in robust
Ibid. III. 370, 371. health under the sun of Hispaniola, returning from America to plead
1517. the cause of the feeble Indians, in the same year which saw the dawn of the Reformation in Germany, suggested the expedient,
The merits of Las Casas have been largely discussed.
The controversy seems now concluded.
Irving's Columbus, III. 367—378.
Navarette, Introduccion, s. LVIII. LIX, The Memoir of Las Casas still exists in manuscript.
Herrera, d. II.
l. II.
c. XX.
Robertson's America, b. III.
It may yet gratify curiosity to compare Gregoire, Apologie de B. Las Casas, in Mem. de
iddle ages.
The landed aristocracy, the hierarchy, and the municipalities, exercised political franchises.
The municipal officers, in part appointed by the sovereign, in part perpetuating themselves, had common interests with the industrious citizens, from whom they were selected; and the nobles, cherishing the feudal right of resisting arbitrary taxation,
Chap. XV.} joined the citizens in defending national liberty against encroachments.
The urgencies of war, the reformation, perhaps
1517 to 1559. also the arrogance of power, often tempted Charles V. to violate the constitutions of the Netherlands; Philip II., on his accession in 1559, formed the delib-
1559. erate purpose of subverting them, and found a willing coadjutor in the prelates.
During the middle age the church was the sole guardian of the people; and its political influence rested on gratitude towards the order which limited arbitrary power by invoking the truths of religion, and opened to plebeian ambition the hi
