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Introduction to Computation
and Programming Using
Python

with Application to Computational

Modeling and Understanding Data
Introduction to Computation
and Programming Using
Python

with Application to Computational

Modeling and Understanding Data
third edition

John V. Guttag

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2021 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or
information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the
publisher.

This book was set in Minion Pro by New Best-set Typesetters Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Guttag, John, author.

Title: Introduction to computation and programming using Python : with
application to computational modeling and understanding data / John V.
Guttag.
Description: Third edition. | Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2021] |
Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020036760 | ISBN 9780262542364 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Python (Computer program language)—Textbooks. | Computer
programming—Textbooks.
Classification: LCC QA76.73.P98 G88 2021 | DDC 005.13/3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020036760

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

d_r0
To my family:

Olga
David
Andrea
Michael
Mark
Addie
Pierce
 CONTENTS

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1: GETTING STARTED
2: INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON
3: SOME SIMPLE NUMERICAL PROGRAMS
4: FUNCTIONS, SCOPING, AND ABSTRACTION
5: STRUCTURED TYPES AND MUTABILITY
6: RECURSION AND GLOBAL VARIABLES
7: MODULES AND FILES
8: TESTING AND DEBUGGING
9: EXCEPTIONS AND ASSERTIONS
10: CLASSES AND OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
11: A SIMPLISTIC INTRODUCTION TO ALGORITHMIC
COMPLEXITY
12: SOME SIMPLE ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES
13: PLOTTING AND MORE ABOUT CLASSES
14: KNAPSACK AND GRAPH OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS
15: DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING
16: RANDOM WALKS AND MORE ABOUT DATA
VISUALIZATION
 17: STOCHASTIC PROGRAMS, PROBABILITY, AND
DISTRIBUTIONS
18: MONTE CARLO SIMULATION
19: SAMPLING AND CONFIDENCE
20: UNDERSTANDING EXPERIMENTAL DATA
21: RANDOMIZED TRIALS AND HYPOTHESIS CHECKING
22: LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND STATISTICS
23: EXPLORING DATA WITH PANDAS
24: A QUICK LOOK AT MACHINE LEARNING
25: CLUSTERING
26: CLASSIFICATION METHODS
PYTHON 3.8 QUICK REFERENCE
INDEX

List of figures

Chapter 1
Figure 1-1 Flowchart of getting dinner
Chapter 2
Figure 2-1 Anaconda startup window
Figure 2-2 Spyder window
Figure 2-3 Operators on types int and float
Figure 2-4 Binding of variables to objects
Figure 2-5 Flowchart for conditional statement
Figure 2-6 Flowchart for iteration
Figure 2-7 Squaring an integer, the hard way
Figure 2-8 Hand simulation of a small program
Figure 2-9 Using a for statement
Chapter 3
Figure 3-1 Using exhaustive enumeration to find the cube root
Figure 3-2 Using exhaustive enumeration to test primality
Figure 3-3 A more efficient primality test
Figure 3-4 Approximating the square root using exhaustive
enumeration
Figure 3-5 Using bisection search to approximate square root
Figure 3-6 Using bisection search to estimate log base 2
Figure 3-7 Implementation of Newton–Raphson method
Chapter 4
Figure 4-1 Using bisection search to approximate square root
of x
Figure 4-2 Summing a square root and a cube root
Figure 4-3 A function for finding roots
Figure 4-4 Code to test find_root
Figure 4-5 Nested scopes
Figure 4-6 Stack frames
Figure 4-7 A function definition with a specification
Figure 4-8 Splitting find_root into multiple functions
Figure 4-9 Generalizing bisection_solve
Figure 4-10 Using bisection_solve to approximate logs
Chapter 5
Figure 5-1 Two lists
Figure 5-2 Two lists that appear to have the same value, but
don't
Figure 5-3 Demonstration of mutability
Figure 5-4 Common methods associated with lists
Figure 5-5 Applying a function to elements of a list
Figure 5-6 Common operations on sequence types
Figure 5-7 Comparison of sequence types
Figure 5-8 Some methods on strings
Figure 5-9 Translating text (badly)
Figure 5-10 Some common operations on dicts
Chapter 6
Figure 6-1 Iterative and recursive implementations of factorial
Figure 6-2 Growth in population of female rabbits
Figure 6-3 Recursive implementation of Fibonacci sequence
Figure 6-4 Palindrome testing
Figure 6-5 Code to visualize palindrome testing
Figure 6-6 Using a global variable
Chapter 7
Figure 7-1 Some code related to circles and spheres
Figure 7-2 Common functions for accessing files
Chapter 8
Figure 8-1 Testing boundary conditions
Figure 8-2 Not the first bug
Figure 8-3 Program with bugs
Chapter 9
Figure 9-1 Using exceptions for control flow
Figure 9-2 Control flow without a try-except
Figure 9-3 Get grades
Chapter 10
Figure 10-1 Class Int_set
Figure 10-2 Using magic methods
Figure 10-3 Class Person
Figure 10-4 Class MIT_person
Figure 10-5 Two kinds of students
Figure 10-6 Class Grades
Figure 10-7 Generating a grade report
Figure 10-8 Information hiding in classes
Figure 10-9 New version of get_students
Figure 10-10 Mortgage base class
Figure 10-11 Mortgage subclasses
Chapter 11
Figure 11-1 Using exhaustive enumeration to approximate
square root
Figure 11-2 Using bisection search to approximate square root
Figure 11-3 Asymptotic complexity
Figure 11-4 Implementation of subset test
Figure 11-5 Implementation of list intersection
Figure 11-6 Generating the power set
Figure 11-7 Constant, logarithmic, and linear growth
Figure 11-8 Linear, log-linear, and quadratic growth
Figure 11-9 Quadratic and exponential growth
Chapter 12
Figure 12-1 Implementing lists
Figure 12-2 Linear search of a sorted list
Figure 12-3 Recursive binary search
Figure 12-4 Selection sort
Figure 12-5 Merge sort
Figure 12-6 Sorting a list of names
Figure 12-7 Implementing dictionaries using hashing
Chapter 13
Figure 13-1 A simple plot
Figure 13-2 Contents of Figure-Jane.png (left) and Figure-
Addie.png (right)
Figure 13-3 Produce plots showing compound growth
Figure 13-4 Plots showing compound growth
Figure 13-5 Another plot of compound growth
Figure 13-6 Strange-looking plot
Figure 13-7 Class Mortgage with plotting methods
Figure 13-8 Subclasses of Mortgage
Figure 13-9 Compare mortgages
Figure 13-10 Generate mortgage plots
Figure 13-11 Monthly payments of different kinds of mortgages
Figure 13-12 Cost over time of different kinds of mortgages
Figure 13-13 Balance remaining and net cost for different kinds
of mortgages
Figure 13-14 Simulation of spread of an infectious disease
Figure 13-15 Function to plot history of infection
Figure 13-16 Produce plot with a single set of parameters
Figure 13-17 Static plot of number of infections
Figure 13-18 Interactive plot with initial slider values
Figure 13-19 Interactive plot with changed slider values
Chapter 14
Figure 14-1 Table of items
Figure 14-2 Class Item
Figure 14-3 Implementation of a greedy algorithm
Figure 14-4 Using a greedy algorithm to choose items
Figure 14-5 Brute-force optimal solution to the 0/1 knapsack
problem
Figure 14-6 The bridges of Königsberg (left) and Euler's
simplified map (right)
Figure 14-7 Nodes and edges
Figure 14-8 Classes Graph and Digraph
Figure 14-9 Depth-first-search shortest-path algorithm
Figure 14-10 Test depth-first-search code
Figure 14-11 Breadth-first-search shortest path algorithm
Chapter 15
Figure 15-1 Tree of calls for recursive Fibonacci
Figure 15-2 Implementing Fibonacci using a memo
Figure 15-3 Table of items with values and weights
Figure 15-4 Decision tree for knapsack problem
Figure 15-5 Using a decision tree to solve a knapsack problem
Figure 15-6 Testing the decision tree-based implementation
Figure 15-7 Dynamic programming solution to knapsack
problem
Figure 15-8 Performance of dynamic programming solution
Chapter 16
Figure 16-1 An unusual farmer
Figure 16-2 Location and Field classes
Figure 16-3 Classes defining Drunks
Figure 16-4 The drunkard's walk (with a bug)
Figure 16-5 Distance from starting point versus steps taken
Figure 16-6 Subclasses of Drunk base class
Figure 16-7 Iterating over styles
Figure 16-8 Plotting the walks of different drunks
Figure 16-9 Mean distance for different kinds of drunks
Figure 16-10 Plotting final locations
Figure 16-11 Where the drunk stops
Figure 16-12 Tracing walks
Figure 16-13 Trajectory of walks
Figure 16-14 Fields with strange properties
Figure 16-15 A strange walk
Chapter 17
Figure 17-1 Roll die
Figure 17-2 Flipping a coin
Figure 17-3 Regression to the mean
Figure 17-4 Illustration of regression to mean
Figure 17-5 Plotting the results of coin flips
Figure 17-6 The law of large numbers at work
Figure 17-7 The law of large numbers at work
Figure 17-8 Variance and standard deviation
Figure 17-9 Helper function for coin-flipping simulation
Figure 17-10 Coin-flipping simulation
Figure 17-11 Convergence of heads/tails ratios
Figure 17-12 Absolute differences
Figure 17-13 Mean and standard deviation of heads - tails
Figure 17-14 Coefficient of variation
Figure 17-15 Final version of flip_plot
Figure 17-16 Coefficient of variation of heads/tails and
abs(heads – tails)
Figure 17-17 A large number of trials
Figure 17-18 Income distribution in Australia
Figure 17-19 Code and the histogram it generates
Figure 17-20 Plot histograms of coin flips
Figure 17-21 Histograms of coin flips
Figure 17-22 PDF for random.random
Figure 17-23 PDF for Gaussian distribution
Figure 17-24 A normal distribution
Figure 17-25 Plot of absolute value of x
Figure 17-26 Checking the empirical rule
Figure 17-27 Produce plot with error bars
Figure 17-28 Estimates with error bars
Figure 17-29 Exponential clearance of molecules
Figure 17-30 Exponential decay
Figure 17-31 Plotting exponential decay with a logarithmic axis
Figure 17-33 A geometric distribution
Figure 17-32 Producing a geometric distribution
Figure 17-34 Simulating a hash table
Figure 17-35 World Series simulation
Figure 17-36 Probability of winning a 7-game series
Chapter 18
Figure 18-1 Checking Pascal's analysis
Figure 18-2 Craps_game class
Figure 18-3 Simulating a craps game
Figure 18-4 Using table lookup to improve performance
Figure 18-5 Unit circle inscribed in a square
Figure 18-6 Estimating π
Chapter 19
Figure 19-1 The first few lines in bm_results2012.csv
Figure 19-2 Read data and produce plot of Boston Marathon
Figure 19-3 Boston Marathon finishing times
Figure 19-4 Sampling finishing times
Figure 19-5 Analyzing a small sample
Figure 19-6 Effect of variance on estimate of mean
Figure 19-7 Compute and plot sample means
Figure 19-8 Sample means
Figure 19-9 Estimating the mean of a continuous die
Figure 19-10 An illustration of the CLT
Figure 19-11 Produce plot with error bars
Figure 19-12 Estimates of finishing times with error bars
Figure 19-13 Standard error of the mean
Figure 19-14 Sample standard deviation vs. population
standard deviation
Figure 19-15 Sample standard deviations
Figure 19-16 Estimating the population mean 10,000 times
Chapter 20
Figure 20-1 A classic experiment
Figure 20-2 Extracting the data from a file
Figure 20-3 Plotting the data
Figure 20-4 Displacement of spring
Figure 20-5 Fitting a curve to data
Figure 20-6 Measured points and linear model
Figure 20-7 Linear and cubic fits
Figure 20-8 Using the model to make a prediction
Figure 20-9 A model up to the elastic limit
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
by the official avengers of the outraged laws. The benefit of clergy
was carried to such extremes in England that Parliament found it
necessary on one occasion to proceed by bill of attainder against the
Bishop of Rochester’s cook, who, wearing the tonsure and assisted
by the influence of his master, had defied the criminal magistracy
and tribunals of the realm. The rendition of a trifling service, the
payment of a sum of money proportioned to the means of the
applicant, and which was often the proceeds of the crime for which
absolution was requested, relieved the highwayman and the
murderer from all apprehension of the penalties of secular justice.
Thus had the monastic orders fatally degenerated from the
simplicity and purity of their original institution. In common with the
other branches of the ecclesiastical profession, they had become
infected with every vice and steeped in every sin. They were
especially noted for their propensity to the most disgraceful offences
in the calendar of human infirmities,—to drunkenness, fornication,
rape, and incest. Men who habitually defied the canons of morality
by indulgence in such practices must necessarily have entertained
but little respect for a system which, so far from restraining, was
known to secretly encourage them. As a consequence, hypocrisy
prevailed everywhere among the ministers of the Church, from the
Holy Father, surrounded by the beauties of his seraglio, to the
mendicant friar, who repaid the services of the obsequious peasant
by the plunder of his goods and the corruption of his family. The
morals of the ecclesiastic were, as a rule, far worse than those of the
layman. In Southern France it was a custom, which precedent had
almost invested with the force of law, for a priest, after the
celebration of his first mass, to invite his clerical friends to a carousal
at the nearest tavern. Bishops read the service in bed. The lower
clergy divided the solemn office of the Eucharist into several parts,
and, demanding a fee for each, quadrupled their emoluments. A
French Council, in 1317, menaced with excommunication any
magistrate who should, at sound of trumpet, expose priests in public,
with their weapons about their necks,—an ordinary penalty for
fighting and riotous conduct. The policy of the Church considered the
most flagrant injustice, the most atrocious crime, as venial in
comparison with neglect of the outward obedience of her rules and
the observance of the formalities of her ritual, such as rare
attendance at mass, blaspheming of relics, withholding of tithes,
eating meat in Lent, labor on holidays. In the prosecution of the
Templars, the articles of accusation did not regard the charge of
incontinence as important in comparison with those of atheism and
idolatry, although it was notorious that more than thirteen thousand
concubines were maintained at the expense of the priories of that
Order in Europe.
The violation of the vow of chastity was so common that only the
most outrageous indecency could excite comment, and the spiritual
authorities, whom the Church had appointed to exercise a
censorship over public morals, hesitated to perform their duties lest
their own delinquencies might thereby be exposed. It was
considered not only meritorious, but convenient, to have a clergyman
for a lover, on account of the facility of concealment and the certainty
of immediate absolution. The presence of the mistresses of bishops,
priests, and canons insulted the wives of honest nobles and
burghers at coronations and tournaments. The vicinity of abbeys and
convents swarmed with the natural children of ecclesiastics. These
members of priestly households were liberally provided for from
revenues ostensibly collected for pious uses and the propagation of
religious truth. So degraded had some of the monks become that
they utilized even the House of God for the basest purposes. Guyot
de Provins, a writer of the thirteenth century and himself the member
of a monastic fraternity, relates that he had seen Cistercians turn
church-yards into pigsties and tether asses in chapels. In addition to
immoderate indulgence in the strongest of wines, the successors of
Pachomius and Antony held eating contests, in which the palm was
awarded to the brother possessing the greatest abdominal capacity.
Among these were the Glutton Masses of England, celebrated five
times a year in honor of the Virgin, when the parish church was
made the scene of the voracious exploits of the priest and the clerks,
who contended for this enviable distinction with an ardor that often
terminated in riot. Every effort to reform these depraved communities
proved futile. The abbot who attempted to correct the vices of his
flock was harassed until he was glad to relinquish his unpromising
task or abandon his charge. If he boldly attempted to enforce his
authority, he stood an excellent chance of being poisoned. The
famous Abelard narrowly escaped this fate, and the pronounced and
vindictive hostility manifested by the inmates of his abbey finally
compelled him to insure his safety by flight. Even the determined
character of Cardinal Ximenes was forced to succumb to the
obstinacy of his Franciscan brethren, whose extortions and irregular
lives had excited his horror and disgust. For seven years, William,
Bishop of Paderborn, employed in vain the authority vested in his
high office to free the monasteries of his diocese from the scandal
produced by the vices of their occupants.
Much of the corruption of the regular clergy was to be attributed to
the impostors and malefactors who found shelter and safety in their
ranks. The assumption of the tonsure alone was sufficient to insure
immunity to the most notorious outlaw. The slave, impatient under
the lash of a cruel master or apprehensive of the consequences of
inexcusable faults, acquired security and freedom in the shadow of
the towers of the abbey. The identity of the criminal and the fugitive,
the schemes of the hypocrite and the knave, were effectually
disguised by the cowl of the friar. The humane and beneficent
privilege of sanctuary was abused by the reception and shelter of
every class of dangerous and disreputable offenders against the
public peace. Association with persons of this abandoned character
could not fail to be demoralizing, even to those of the fraternity who
observed their vows, and must have still further corrupted the idle
and the dissolute who had already embraced the alluring and
luxurious routine of conventual life.
The incapacity, arrogance, and debauchery of the clergy at length
grew intolerable, even to a bigoted and priest-ridden people. The
translation of the Bible by Wyclif, the teachings of John Huss and
Jerome of Prague, paved the way for the exercise of private
judgment and the privilege of independent thought. All over Europe a
reaction took place. It was least felt in Italy, where the masses had
for ages been familiar with the impostures and crimes of the Papacy.
It was most marked in England, where the grievances imposed on
the laity by their religious instructors had become insufferable, and
the wealth of the kingdom had been absorbed by the creatures of
Rome. The heresies of France for a time threatened the existence of
the hierarchy, and were only suppressed by a crusade and the
diabolical energy of the Inquisition. Reverence for every form of
belief had been shaken by the universal prevalence of sacerdotal
iniquity. In Provence and Languedoc priests were insulted by the
mob and lampooned by minstrels. Their services were rejected with
contempt, their gestures were mocked, their vices satirized with
pitiless severity. The English populace, exasperated beyond
measure by their wrongs, occasionally proceeded to acts of violence.
In some towns an ecclesiastic was hardly safe on the streets. No
clerk dared to commit himself or his cause to the verdict of a jury. A
handful of worshippers was lost in the nave of the cathedral, where
thousands once had congregated. Women went unshriven rather
than trust themselves in the confessional, whose precincts, from
being the abode of religious advice and consolation, had grown
dangerous to the preservation of feminine honor. In 1746 a
remonstrance was made to the Primate of England against the
participation of women in pilgrimages, as the cities of France,
Lombardy, and the Rhine were filled with courtesans, who had
abused these opportunities for the exhibition of religious zeal. The
authority of the ecclesiastical tribunals was openly defied, their
proceedings derided, their judges insulted, their subordinate officers
maltreated. In London, towards the close of the fifteenth century, it
was a serious matter to attempt to serve a process of the
Consistorial Court. The power for evil of this once formidable engine
of persecution, which had exercised an offensive censorship over
every community, had become hopelessly impaired.
Of such a character were the religious instructors of the people of
Western Christendom for five hundred years. The original austerity
of the monastic orders had disappeared. In no instance had it
actually survived the first century dating from the institution of any
ecclesiastical fraternity. With it had departed by far the greater
portion of its capacity for usefulness. The daily lives of the secular
priesthood presented disgusting examples of human depravity.
Among the laity, the rich, at least, were secure from damnation; for
by a judicious and liberal offering and the deposit of a schedule of
their sins under the altar-cloth of a compassionate saint, in a few
hours the sheet was found to be blank and the generous penitent, by
the immediate intercession of his patron, was absolved from the
consequences of his transgressions without the delay or the
exposure of confession. The foundation of a religious house was
often derived from the fears or the repentance of a wealthy and
superstitious sinner. An immense tract of unimproved land was
conveyed to a colony of monks. In the most sequestered spot, far
removed from the turmoil, the vanities, and the temptations of the
world, an unpretending structure, composed of wattled boughs and
thatched with straw or rushes, was constructed. The surrounding
forest was stocked with game. A neighboring lake or streamlet
furnished a supply of fish. In many fraternities, however, such food
was forbidden, for the austerity of discipline sometimes permitted
nothing but a meagre diet of herbs and pulse washed down with
water. The obligations of their profession as well as the necessity of
sustenance required that a portion of their time should be spent in
the cultivation of the soil. A number of the brethren labored in the
fields while the others attended to the domestic and sacred duties
enjoined by their monastic vows. In some monkish abodes the voice
of praise was never silent. Relays of choristers occupied the chapel
without intermission day or night. The summons to devotion were
frequent. To preserve decorum, spies were appointed to report
irregularities of conduct within the monastery. No monk was
permitted to leave its precincts without a companion, that each might
restrain the other from the indulgence in sinful thoughts and carnal
recreations. In the cloister the recluse was constantly reminded of
the requirements and obligations of his profession by the fervent
exhortations of his superior and the enforced observance of silence,
meditation, and prayer. By self-infliction of grievous penances,—
scourging, fasting, wearing of shirts of haircloth or mail, immersion in
water of icy coldness,—worldly temptations and sensual desires
were effectually suppressed, and mind and body were devoted to the
ostensible and original objects of monachal life,—the service and the
glorification of God.
In time their modest and contracted habitations became too small
to accommodate the increasing numbers or to satisfy the ambitious
zeal of the pious brethren. The wealth derived from the assiduous
cultivation of their lands, the profits of their trade, the contributions of
royal visitors, and the generosity of their founders enabled them to
erect buildings whose imposing proportions and exquisite
ornamentation are the delight and the despair of modern architects.
The church dedicated to a certain saint was founded on the day
preserved by tradition as the date of his birth. A vigil was maintained,
and when the first rays of the sun reddened the horizon the work
was commenced. As the point where that luminary appeared was
taken for the east, on account of the constantly varying position of
the sun in the heavens there are but few ecclesiastical edifices
constructed during the Middle Ages whose walls correspond with the
four cardinal points of the compass. In the ranks of the religious
brotherhoods were to be found artisans of every description, whose
professional efforts were prompted and encouraged by the inspiring
spirit of religious devotion. Such were the dimensions of these
magnificent structures that the chapels of many abbeys—such as St.
Albans, Southwell, St. Ouen, Durham, Canterbury—are now
cathedral churches of some of the richest dioceses of France and
England. The architectural splendor of Westminster is familiar to
every traveller. The buildings included in the great Cistercian Abbey
of Tinterne, which were enclosed by a wall, were distributed over
thirty-four acres. The symmetry and beauty of the Gothic temples of
Normandy are unimpaired and unrivalled after the revolutions of
more than seven centuries. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction of some
sees extended over as many as seven thousand mansi, or cottages
of serfs; those who only received the tribute of two thousand were so
numerous as to be comparatively insignificant.
All the possessions of the clergy were exempt from taxation.
Tithes, at first limited to a tenth of the products of the soil, were, by
ecclesiastical artifice and Papal rapacity, extended and made to
include the entire yield of every crop, the increase of every herb, the
labor of every artisan. Without taking into account the territorial area
in the hands of the See of Rome at the period of the Reformation,
the monastic guilds and corporations had absorbed half of the livings
of Great Britain. The revenues of some religious foundations in that
country were not less than fifty thousand pounds sterling, reckoning
voluntary donations alone. In the thirteenth century the English
clergy bore to the laity the ratio of one to four hundred in number,
while their lands amounted to thirty-three per cent. of the entire real
property of the kingdom. In Spain during the same period the
proportion of ecclesiastics was one to seven, and fifty per cent. of
the landed possessions under Christian control belonged to them.
The pressing necessities of grasping and irreverent princes, who did
not scruple to appropriate under various pretexts the riches of the
ecclesiastical order, alone prevented the eventual exclusion of the
laity of Europe from all ownership of or jurisdiction over the soil.
No religious service could be more solemn, no spectacle more
awe-inspiring, than the celebration of a Church festival in one of the
grand old abbey chapels in mediæval times. The edifice itself was
the ideal of architectural beauty. Through the elegant designs of
painted windows, the light, in iridescent hues, shone in tempered
radiance over the richly sculptured tombs of prelate and crusader
and the checkered pavement brilliant with its graceful patterns of tile
and marble mosaic. The walls of nave and transept were hung with
tapestry, embroidered sometimes with representations of scriptural
events, sometimes with the figures of departed abbots or the
portraits of a line of famous kings. The altar, before whose holy
presence constantly burned rows of waxen tapers, glittered with
ornaments bestowed by the hand of opulent piety and massive
reliquaries set with priceless gems. The resounding notes of the
Gregorian chant filled the air; the officiating monks in splendid
vestments, the pomp of crucifix and incense, added to the
impressiveness of the ceremonial and imparted to the scene a
striking representation of divine worship which could hardly be
paralleled in Rome itself. Truly, in its palmy days the monastery was
an important adjunct to Papal power and grandeur!
From the consideration of the manifold vices and flagrant
corruption with which the life of monastic institutions was tainted, it
becomes a pleasure to enumerate the benefits that these
establishments conferred upon humanity. First in importance is the
fact that they were the depositories of learning during the Dark Ages.
The requirements of the sacred profession, whose dogmas they
were designed to uphold and propagate, demanded the possession
of some degree of knowledge. The standard of intelligence was far
higher in the monastery than in the chapter house of the cathedral or
in the episcopal palace. Many of the secular clergy could neither
read nor write; their exposition of the sacraments was pronounced in
an incoherent jargon, and a canon who understood grammar was an
object of general wonder and respect. The lewd and profane
character of the discourses from the pulpit was often such that it
would not be tolerated for an instant by the fastidious delicacy of a
modern audience. The enjoyment of abundant leisure, the
praiseworthy impulse of accumulating information which might prove
of advantage, both in disseminating the truths of the Gospel and in
magnifying the importance of their order, actuated a certain number
of the inmates of every cloister to the transcription of books, to the
study of authors, to the illumination of missals. Some wrote poems in
Latin. Others, like Hrotswitha, the German nun of Gandersheim,
composed dramas in imitation of the classics. These literary efforts,
while often coarse in sentiment, immoral in tendency, and crude in
execution, seem prodigies of learning when we recall the dense
atmosphere of ignorance in which they were produced. In the abbey
were preserved contemporaneous records not only of all
transactions in which that institution was concerned, but also many
details of affairs of national interest, which furnished in after ages
invaluable data to the historian. In many convents there existed
schools where novices as well as the children of the peasantry could
receive rudimentary instruction. Books, among which is mentioned
the Fables of Æsop, were chained to tables in the halls for the
benefit of those pupils. The great impulse given to intellectual
progress by Wyclif’s incomplete translation of the Bible in the
fourteenth century is indicated by the ludicrous complaint of an old
monkish chronicler, who lamented that “Women are now grown more
versed in the New Testament than learned clerks.” Coincident with
that auspicious event, the monopoly of letters, so long enjoyed and
perverted by the clergy, came to an end. In cases where the
interests of religion were thought to be imperilled, the monks did not
hesitate to obstruct the path of knowledge. Through their influence
the study of physics and of law was forbidden in the twelfth century
to the students of the University of Montpellier. In contradistinction to
this spirit of offensive bigotry, it must not be forgotten that the first
printing-presses used in Europe were placed in monasteries.
The seclusion of monasticism encouraged to a considerable
extent the love of the arts. In beauty of design and completeness of
finish the efforts of the Gothic architect have never been surpassed.
Bookmaking was carried to an advanced state of perfection. From
unwieldy volumes with wooden leaves, bound in leaden covers,
manuscripts developed into the exquisite specimens of calligraphic
and decorative elegance so prized by modern collectors. Some were
written in gold and silver letters on purple vellum. The illuminations—
whence was derived the first inspiration of modern painting—were
often the work of years. The bindings were of carved ivory or of the
precious metals, not infrequently enriched with jewels. Those
volumes destined for the service of the altar sometimes enclosed a
reliquary and became doubly precious, as well by reason of the
sacred memento they contained as on account of their costly
materials and the labor expended upon them. The art of the sculptor
owes much to the diligence and skill displayed by the mediæval
wood-carver, whose handiwork is visible in the stalls and altar-
screens of Gothic cathedrals. The embroidered vestments wrought
by nuns during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are marvels of
ornamentation, patience, and dexterity. Constant practice in the choir
led to a considerable advance in the knowledge of poetry and music.
Nor were philosophical pursuits, despite their confessed antagonism
to the Church, altogether neglected. The name and acquirements of
Pope Sylvester II. were to his contemporaries as well as to posterity
long suggestive of a compact with the Devil and the practice of
magic. Modern science, in its indiscriminate censure of monasticism,
should not forget that the great natural philosophers of the Middle
Ages, Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, belonged to the orders of
mendicant friars, for the one was a Franciscan and the other a
Dominican.
In the monastery was dispensed not only medical aid, so far as
the rudeness and ignorance of the superstitious practitioner allowed,
but also unstinted and gratuitous hospitality. The conventual
establishment was at once the hospital and the hotel of mediæval
society. In the thinly peopled districts usually selected by its
founders, no public provision was made for the relief of the sufferings
of the invalid or the necessities of the traveller, and both found within
its walls a generous and cordial greeting. Its sanctuary covered the
trembling victim of feudal oppression with the mantle of its comfort
and protection. Its towers, secure in their sacred character, passed
unscathed through the wreck of dynasties and the perils of
revolutionary violence. The substantial walls of donjon and barbican
went down under the assaults of Norman, Saxon, Dane, and
Lombard, but the abbey, defenceless save in the immunity afforded
by the holy calling of its inmates, remained unchanged amidst these
scenes of universal disorder and ruin, the depository of ancient
learning, the refuge of the remnant of those elegant social courtesies
which had survived the fall of imperial greatness, the asylum of the
persecuted, the home of the arts, the preserver of civilization in a
martial and unenlightened age.
While Rome was the centre of ecclesiastical and temporal power,
Constantinople was the undisputed seat of the refinement and
culture of Christian Europe. The transfer of the government of the
Empire to the confines of Asia had not, however, destroyed the
prestige which the Eternal City had obtained by her glorious
achievements in arts, in arms, in literature, in politics, during so
many centuries. The new capital of the Cæsars could not properly be
called a Roman city. Its population, after the first fifty years following
its foundation, was more Greek than Latin, but its most distinctive
features were always Asiatic. The ordinary idiom of its citizens was
that of Ionia and Attica. The despotism of its court, the manners of its
people, bore the pronounced stamp of the Orient. Its society was
cosmopolitan, and the relations it maintained through the channels of
trade with remote countries constantly filled its thoroughfares with
picturesque and barbaric costumes. The brutality of the West, the
vices of the East, the superstitions of Africa, the cruelty of Italy, found
a congenial home on the shores of the Bosphorus. The successors
of Constantine claimed and exercised prerogatives wholly
inconsistent with the security of the community or the principles of
equity. They interposed their authority to annul the sentences of
judicial tribunals. They inflicted frightful tortures without the warrant
of law or precedent. They imposed taxes which impoverished even
the wealthiest of their subjects. They permitted their flatterers to
extort ransoms, traffic in justice, and dispose of employments without
even the decorous pretext of concealment. The mutual hatred
existing between the bloodthirsty factions of the capital, the ancient
enmity of the nobles, the jealousy of rival princes, which had more
than once caused disastrous riots, the tumultuous fury of the rabble,
induced the emperors to habitually distrust the fidelity of those
statesmen whose birth and education best qualified them to direct
the policy of a great empire. As a necessity, therefore, eunuchs were
intrusted with the management of affairs of state and filled the
responsible offices of the imperial household. Surrounded by a
crowd of dependents and flatterers, these monsters were the
fountain of all honor and the recipients of all homage; while the
sovereign of the East, shorn of his actual power, was left to the
society of monks and parasites. An excessive love of pomp and of
magnificent attire was a marked trait of the Byzantine character. The
imperial train often included more than twenty thousand servants,
the majority of whom were eunuchs. The eunuch was the most
conspicuous personage in the government, in the hierarchy, in
commercial adventure, in social amusement, in political intrigue. He
discharged the functions of a general often with credit, sometimes
with consummate skill. His secretive habits and demeanor admirably
fitted him for the tortuous paths and insidious methods of diplomatic
intercourse. He was a power in the Byzantine hierarchy. Members of
his caste were exalted to high positions in the ecclesiastical order.
Some attained to the supreme dignity of Patriarch, an office for
centuries of greater importance than that of Bishop of Rome. Others
controlled the wealthiest sees of the Eastern Church. Monastic life
seemed to possess a peculiar attraction for them, and many
convents in Constantinople were peopled exclusively by the victims
of man’s deliberate cruelty. Some of these institutions contained
nearly a thousand inmates. The prominent part taken by this odious
class in establishing the standard of modern orthodoxy, through its
influence on the ladies of the imperial household in the early days of
Christianity, is familiar to every reader of Church history. The
insatiable avarice and rapacity of the eunuch impelled him to the
accumulation of wealth through the legitimate channels of foreign
commerce and domestic enterprise, as well as by the more
questionable means of servility and corruption. His ships were
known in every port of the Mediterranean. He was identified with the
largest mercantile establishments of the capital. In every social
assembly he was conspicuous, in every conspiracy his concealed
but powerful hand was felt. His equipage was the gayest, his train
the most imposing on the streets. In the circus he took precedence
of haughty patricians, whom he far eclipsed in splendor of costume.
Ever with an eye to his own aggrandizement, he whispered treason
in the ears of the nobles and instigated the rabble to revolt. The
sentiments of gratitude, of sympathy, of charity, were unknown to
him. The frightful punishments inflicted by the court on political
offenders were notoriously suggested by his malignant genius. With
the loss of his procreative power seemed to have vanished every
trace of honor, of justice, of humanity, of loyalty, of devotion. He was
execrated by the Byzantine populace, whose feelings were
expressed by the current saying, “If you have a eunuch, kill him; if
you have none, buy one and kill him!”
The government of the Byzantine Empire exhibited a curious
mixture of irresponsible power and abject dependence. The
emperors displayed all the insignia and all the arrogance of
despotism, while at the same time they were really the slaves of their
parasites. The career of a sovereign was certain to be a short one if
he manifested an inclination to independence and to the assertion of
his legal prerogatives. In the court of Constantinople poisoning was
reduced to a science, and eunuchs, astrologers, priests, and
charlatans were ready instruments of ambition and revenge. The
formalities attending the intercourse of members of the royal family
and the aristocracy were so complicated as to require a long course
of study to master them. They were reduced to a code, familiarity
with whose rules was considered the greatest accomplishment of a
courtier. While this frivolous ceremonial was being sedulously
perfected, the constantly receding frontiers of the Empire were
abandoned to the encroachments of the barbarians of the Baltic and
the Caspian. The state revenues were squandered by ecclesiastics
and insatiable favorites. Rapacious tax-collectors displayed the
character and adopted the customs of licensed brigands. Their
extortions became so excessive and the distress of the people was
so great that three-fourths of the inhabitants of the monarchy were
officially inscribed upon the public registers as mendicants.
From the eighth to the twelfth century Constantinople was, in all
probability, the most opulent and populous city in the world. It had
inherited the traditions of the ancient Roman capital, while it had in a
great measure discarded the policy which had made those traditions
famous. The most exquisite of the works of art that had escaped the
fury of the barbarous hordes of Scythia and Gaul had been
conveyed within its walls. Its streets were lined with magnificent
mansions, colonnades, temples. Everywhere rose suggestive
mementos of that great power whose name had been renowned and
feared from the Highlands of Scotland to the banks of the Oxus. In
forum and garden the mean and stolid visages of sainted monk and
anchorite stood side by side with the noble busts and statues of the
most illustrious heroes and citizens of classic Rome. The royal
palaces were modelled, some after the beautiful villas which had
once adorned the Campagna, others after plans suggested by the
Saracen architects of Bagdad. The churches also bore evidence of
the imitative character of Byzantine art, which borrowed its
inspiration from Greece and the Orient. It is said that in 1403 there
were three thousand of them in the city. Monolithic columns of
different colored marble supported their domes,—sometimes as
many as five in number,—roofed with tiles of gilded bronze. Their
walls were incrusted with lapis-lazuli and jasper. The sculpture in
relief was covered with gold. Elaborate patterns of arabesques in
mosaics embellished the walls and formed the pavements. The
fountains were of silver and their basins were filled with wine instead
of water, for the benefit of the Byzantine mob, whose struggles often
diverted the indolent leisure of the monarch and his luxurious court.
A separate dwelling was used by the Emperor during each season of
the year, and the appointments and furniture of each of them were
adapted to the atmospheric vicissitudes of the climate of
Constantinople. In all the decorations of these sumptuous edifices
jewels were lavished in ostentatious and semi-barbaric profusion.
The perverted ingenuity of the Byzantine inventor was expended in
the construction of curious toys that might delight the simplicity of
childhood, but which could hardly be expected to engage the
attention of royalty, even in a degenerate age. One of the
masterpieces of these skilful artisans was a tree of the precious
metals with foliage occupied by golden birds, whose shrill notes filled
the halls of the palace. Notwithstanding its vast expenditure of
treasure, such were the resources of the Byzantine monarchy that
even after its territory was contracted almost to the walls of the
capital, it still embraced the wealthiest community in Christendom.
The unrivalled commercial facilities enjoyed by Constantinople more
than counterbalanced for centuries the disadvantages of political
incapacity, national idleness, and official corruption. The losses
resulting from ecclesiastical quarrels, the sanguinary revolutions of
political factions, the ravages of Crusaders and the pestilence were
speedily supplied from the cities of Greece and the colonies of Asia
Minor. The heterogeneous elements of its population, thus recruited
from so many sources, early caused it to assume the appearance
and the character of the most cosmopolitan of cities; and as the
capital was the type of the entire region subject to the sovereign, it
has been remarked, not incorrectly, that the Byzantine Empire was a
government without a nation.
So marked, however, was the religious and intellectual
debasement of contemporaneous Europe that the weakness and
crimes of the Greek emperors passed unnoticed amidst the
recognized superiority of the civilization which their wanton
extravagance polluted. The extent and magnitude of their commerce,
the splendor of their embassies, the munificence with which they
rewarded their allies, afforded the most exaggerated ideas of their
importance and power. The pomp which invested their presence
concealed the deplorable conditions under whose restraints they
were compelled to direct the affairs of their empire. The political
imbecility of the Greeks was, therefore, not visible to their neighbors.
These observed only the gorgeous theatrical effects which sustained
the prestige of a decaying monarchy, and the alliance of the princes
of Constantinople was solicited alike by the khalifs of Bagdad, Cairo,
and Cordova, by the emperors of the West, and by the kings of
England. In the social polity of the Greeks the court was everything
and the people nothing. The natural law of progress, by which man is
encouraged to accumulate wealth by the knowledge that he can
enjoy it unmolested, and is impelled to intellectual pursuits through
the hope of political advancement,—a law practically annulled by the
Cæsars of Rome,—was entirely abolished under the emperors of
Byzantium. Little security could be expected from a government
which attempted to extort from the wretched peasant, whose
harvests had been swept away by the barbarian, the same tax
demanded from the prosperous merchant, and made no allowance
for the destitution for which its own incapacity and corruption were
responsible.
The most pernicious ideas relative to the duties and privileges of
citizenship had been imported from Italy. The people were divided
into castes. The aristocracy considered all occupations carried on for
profit as disgraceful to a patrician. It was a maxim with the populace,
and one which it would have been dangerous to controvert, that the
state owed it sustenance and amusement. In maintaining such a
principle, the lower classes could have no motive for labor, and the
rabble of Constantinople had not forgotten that the Roman citizen
who so far disregarded his dignity as to become an artisan was
ignominiously driven from his tribe. The only career open to the
aspiring plebeian was through the Church. To obtain a commanding
position in the hierarchy, the favor and assistance of a eunuch or of a
princess of the royal family was indispensable. The duties of the
priesthood required the possession of little intelligence and less
education. The affairs of palace and cathedral were usually
administered by emasculated monks, indebted for their places to the
ostentatious devotion or convenient servility by which they
demonstrated their usefulness in furthering the designs of ambitious
patrons. While the general licentiousness which scandalized the
papal court did not prevail to an equal extent among the clergy of
Constantinople, the lives of many of the patriarchs were stained with
vices equal in baseness and impiety to any that defiled the character
of the worst of the pontiffs. Soldiers, eunuchs, parasites, and tools of
intriguing statesmen were elevated in turn to the most eminent
dignity of the Eastern Church. Some carried with them into the
episcopal palace the manners and the license of the camp. Others,
by enlisting the services of the monks and the populace, fomented
sanguinary and disastrous revolutions. Others again, by the
monstrous extravagance of their behavior and the irreverence which
they displayed in the discharge of their sacred functions, aroused the
indignation and incurred the censure of the devout. Of the latter,
Theophylactus offers a conspicuous example. The sale of
ecclesiastical preferments furnished him regularly with means for the
gratification of his unholy passions. He was raised to the patriarchal
throne of Constantinople at the age of twelve years. He introduced
into the Greek ritual absurd ceremonies and licentious hymns which,
strange to relate, survived him for almost two centuries. To this
practice are traceable the riotous and obscene festivals of the Middle
Ages, when religion was travestied and the rites of the Church
profaned by license as gross as that which characterized the
excesses of the decadent empire of the Cæsars. He deprecated the
wrath of the Devil with heathen sacrifices. In his stable were two
thousand horses, which were fed on almonds and figs steeped in
wine, regaled with costly liquors, and sprinkled with the most
exquisite perfumes. Not infrequently in the midst of the mass he left
his congregation to visit the stall of some favorite charger. Could
piety or virtue be expected from a people whose spiritual necessities
were ministered to by such a prelate?
With moral degeneracy came also intellectual decrepitude. A
scanty but inestimable remnant of the vast stores of learning which
had instructed and delighted the Pagan world had been rescued
from the hands of the ruthless barbarian and preserved on the
shores of the Bosphorus. But the scarcity of writing materials and the
ignorance and prejudice of the unlettered ecclesiastics into whose
hands many of these treasures fell insured their destruction. Great
numbers of the productions of classic authors were erased from the
precious parchment to make room for the legendary miracles of
fictitious saints. Others perished by mould and mildew in the dripping
vaults of monasteries and churches. Near the Cathedral of St.
Sophia there stood in the eighth century a great basilica of unique
and elegant design called the Octagon. It was approached by eight
magnificent porticos supported by pillars of white marble. The edifice
itself displayed the taste and skill of the Grecian architect, whose
type, while suggestive of the decline of an art once carried to a
perfection without parallel, was, even in its decadence, superior to
the masterpieces of all other nations. Erected by Constantine the
Great for purposes of religious worship, Julian had consecrated it to
literature, had deposited within its halls his extensive library, and had
established there an academy in imitation of the famous Museum
founded by the Ptolemies at Alexandria. Here a corps of teachers,
maintained at the expense of the state, imparted instruction
gratuitously on all branches of theology and the arts. The library was
open to every student of whatever creed or nationality. A number of
expert calligraphists and scholars were constantly employed in
adding to the collection, or in reproducing manuscripts that had been
damaged by abuse or neglect. The professors of this university—the
only institution worthy of the name in the entire realm of the empire—
were held in the highest reverence. Sometimes their opinions were
taken on important questions of law and diplomacy. Often their
mediation was solicited by the heads of contending factions. By the
pre-eminence of their acquirements and the weight attaching to their
decisions, they averted many a national catastrophe. The
incumbents of the most exalted places in the Church were frequently
taken from their ranks. During the season of its prosperity no
institution of learning outside of the dominions of the khalifs wielded
such a salutary influence or was regarded with such respect and
homage by all classes of mankind as the Octagon of Constantinople.
In the reign of Zeno, when it was consumed by fire, this famous
edifice contained a library of a hundred and twenty thousand
volumes. Among the treasures lost in the conflagration was a
wonderful manuscript of the works of Homer, more than one hundred
feet long, composed of serpent skins inscribed with characters of
gold. Restored by the emperors to some degree of its former
splendor, Leo the Isaurian, who, after repeated interviews, had failed
to convert to his iconoclastic views the teachers of the University,
determined to effectually silence those who had so signally refuted
his arguments. Secretly, and during the night, an immense quantity
of combustibles was distributed about the building, the torch was
applied, detachments of troops prevented all attempts at rescue, and
the assembled wisdom and learning of the Byzantine Empire
perished in one indiscriminate ruin. From this inexcusable act of
vandalism dates the disappearance of many of the greatest works of
the poets, philosophers, and historians of antiquity. What the
iconoclast had begun the crusader completed. The storming of the
capital by the Latins dealt another destructive blow to literature. The
martial fanaticism of the West saw nothing to admire and much to
execrate in the immortal productions of Pagan genius. The ignorant
monks who followed in the train of the Count of Flanders and the
Marquis of Montferrat showed scant consideration to such of the
classics as fell into their hands. The precious remains that survived
this age of violence, superstition, and intellectual apathy rested
uncared for and forgotten in the seclusion of private libraries and the
sacred recesses of the cloister until they were resurrected by the
insatiable demand for knowledge which distinguished the people of
Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
In every phase of social as well as of intellectual life, the national
inferiority of the Byzantine was manifest. He could copy with a fair
degree of skill, but he could not originate. He absorbed little and
created almost nothing. The works of art in which he took most pride
were rather indebted for their value to the nature of their materials
than to the labor and ingenuity that had produced them. In the style
of ornamentation,—especially as regards the pattern of textile fabrics
and the settings of jewels,—the Syrian taste, which delighted in floral
designs and the forms of grotesque animals, predominated. There
was little in the work of the Byzantine sculptor to call to mind the
simplicity and delicacy that pre-eminently distinguished the exquisite
products of the Attic chisel. Yet its imitative tendency induced the
genius of the Eastern Empire to borrow from all its neighbors, and
especially from Greece, whose art had greatly retrograded even
before the accession of Constantine. The adoption of Christianity as
the religion of the state was most unfavorable to sculpture, which
was associated by the ignorant with the representation and worship
of the gods of antiquity. The term “Byzantine,” as applied to
decoration, is most comprehensive, and, employed by writers at will,
has become indefinite. When examples of this style possess marked
characteristics, however, and can readily be identified, they show
clearly the impress of foreign influence, resulting commercial activity,
and intimate diplomatic relations of the Greek Empire with nations of
the most discordant customs and religious traditions. The mural
designs in mosaic peculiar to Constantinople were reproduced in
temples dedicated to the ceremonial of widely different creeds, as
the Mosque of Cordova, the Church of St. Mark at Venice, and the
Cathedral of St. Isaac at St. Petersburg.
The division of society into castes was the most serious and
insurmountable impediment to progress encountered by the people
of the Greek Empire. Public opinion was voiced by the court at the
instigation of the clergy. There was one law for the members of the
imperial household and another for all who did not enjoy that
adventitious privilege. What was a crime in the citizen was scarcely
considered an error in the patrician. The tradesmen, who to some
extent constituted a middle class, were not wealthy or influential
enough to own slaves,—a criterion of social importance,—and in
nine cases out of ten sympathized with, if they did not actually
support, the claims of the rabble. The cultivator of the soil, uncertain
whether he would be permitted to enjoy the fruit of his labors,
through the rapacity of the imperial officials or the relentless fury of
the barbarians, pursued his useful vocation to little purpose. In a
region proverbial for fertility, under a sky unusually favorable to the
husbandman, there was no uniformity in the amount of the yield, no
certainty of even a moderate harvest. Under the same atmospheric
conditions a year of famine often succeeded a year of the greatest
abundance. The most lucrative branch of commerce was the slave-
trade. The Saracen pirates, who swarmed in the Mediterranean,
exchanged their captives in the markets of Byzantium for Baltic
amber, Chinese silks, Arabian spices, and Indian jewels. These
slaves, both male and female, were sold to Jews, who disposed of
them to the Moslems of Persia, Egypt, Mauritania, and Spain. The
manufacture of eunuchs was not only a profitable industry, but was
often resorted to with a view to the future political or ecclesiastical
promotion of the unfortunate subject. Parents mutilated their children
in the hope that they might rise to the administration of important
dignities in the palace or the Church. Unsuccessful aspirants to the
throne were compelled to undergo this painful and dangerous
operation, and were then confined for life in some secluded
monastery. The abject degeneracy of the nation further revealed
itself by the infliction of even more inhuman and revolting
punishments. Political conspirators were flayed alive. Vivisection was
practised upon criminals not sufficiently adroit or wealthy to escape
the vigilance of the magistrate. Offenders guilty of public sacrilege
were scourged, crucified, or burnt. With the intellectual debasement
indicated by the enjoyment of human suffering were mingled the
most puerile superstitions. Every class of society, from the emperor
to the peasant, was a firm believer in visions, omens, auguries. The
flight of birds was observed, the entrails of a slaughtered animal
examined with an eagerness never surpassed by that of the votaries
of Paganism. The occurrence of an inauspicious event, an unusual
dream, an apparent prodigy, overwhelmed the unhappy Byzantine
with dismay. Still tinctured with the idolatrous superstition of his
fathers, he secretly placed gifts upon the defaced altars of ruined
temples, consulted the silent oracles, endeavored to propitiate the
neglected gods by nocturnal sacrifices. Belief in the evil-eye was
universal, a delusion not extinct even in our day among the more
ignorant peasantry of Italy, who think that the possession and
exercise of this mysterious power is one of the prerogatives of the
Pope. In such a community the charlatans who thrive by the
weakness of mankind were not wanting. Astrologers were
considered necessary appendages to the grandeur of the imperial
court. They abounded in every quarter of the city, and were regarded
by the populace with feelings of mingled fear and veneration. Even
members of the priesthood, terrified by some unfamiliar natural
phenomenon, which their ignorance suggested might portend an
imminent calamity, did not hesitate to openly visit these impostors.
To the hands of these two great powers, the Papacy of Rome and
the Empire of the Greeks, were virtually intrusted the destinies of the
vast and constantly increasing population of Europe. Their evil
influence over the minds of men was incalculable. What the
unprincipled methods and insolent pretensions of the former failed to
effect was supplied by the political duplicity of the latter. While often
apparently at variance, they were in reality, though unconsciously,
seeking to compass a common end,—the moral, social, and
intellectual degradation of humanity. No conceptions of honor,
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