Books Fatal to Their Authors by P. H. Ditchfield
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P. H. Ditchfield >> Books Fatal to Their Authors
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BOOKS FATAL TO THEIR AUTHORS
BY
P. H. DITCHFIELD
TO THE MEMORY OF
JOHN WALTER, ESQ., M.A., J.P.,
OF BEARWOOD, BERKS,
THIS VOLUME
IS
RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
TO THE BOOK-LOVER.
_To record the woes of authors and to discourse_ de libris fatalibus
_seems deliberately to court the displeasure of that fickle mistress who
presides over the destinies of writers and their works. Fortune awaits the
aspiring scribe with many wiles, and oft treats him sorely. If she enrich
any, it is but to make them subject of her sport. If she raise others, it
is but to pleasure herself with their ruins. What she adorned but
yesterday is to-day her pastime, and if we now permit her to adorn and
crown us, we must to-morrow suffer her to crush and tear us to pieces.
To-day her sovereign power is limited: she can but let loose a host of
angry critics upon us; she can but scoff at us, take away our literary
reputation, and turn away the eyes of a public as fickle as herself from
our pages. Surely that were hard enough! Can Fortune pluck a more galling
dart from her quiver, and dip the point in more envenomed bitterness? Yes,
those whose hard lot is here recorded have suffered more terrible wounds
than these. They have lost liberty, and even life, on account of their
works. The cherished offspring of their brains have, like unnatural
children, turned against their parents, causing them to be put to death._
_Fools many of them--nay, it is surprising how many of this illustrious
family have peopled the world, and they can boast of many authors' names
which figure on their genealogical tree--men who might have lived happy,
contented, and useful lives were it not for their insane _cacoethes
scribendi_. And hereby they show their folly. If only they had been
content to write plain and ordinary commonplaces which every one believed,
and which caused every honest fellow who had a grain of sense in his head
to exclaim, "How true that is!" all would have been well. But they must
needs write something original, something different from other men's
thoughts; and immediately the censors and critics began to spy out heresy,
or laxity of morals, and the fools were dealt with according to their
folly. There used to be special houses of correction in those days, mad-
houses built upon an approved system, for the special treatment of cases
of this kind; mediaeval dungeons, an occasional application of the rack,
and other gentle instruments of torture of an inventive age, were
wonderfully efficacious in curing a man of his folly. Nor was there any
special limit to the time during which the treatment lasted. And in case
of a dangerous fit of folly, there were always a few faggots ready, or a
sharpened axe, to put a finishing stroke to other and more gentle
remedies._
_One species of folly was especially effective in procuring the attention
of the critics of the day, and that was satirical writing. They could not
tolerate that style--no, not for a moment; and many an author has had his
cap and bells, aye, and the lining too, severed from the rest of his
motley, simply because he would go and play with Satyrs instead of keeping
company with plain and simple folk._
_Far separated from the crowd of fools, save only in their fate, were
those who amid the mists of error saw the light of Truth, and strove to
tell men of her graces and perfections. The vulgar crowd heeded not the
message, and despised the messengers. They could see no difference between
the philosopher's robe and the fool's motley, the Saint's glory and
Satan's hoof. But with eager eyes and beating hearts the toilers after
Truth worked on._
_"How many with sad faith have sought her?
How many with crossed hands have sighed for her?
How many with brave hearts fought for her,
At life's dear peril wrought for her,
So loved her that they died for her,
Tasting the raptured fleetness
Of her Divine completeness?"_
_In honour of these scholars of an elder age, little understood by their
fellows, who caused them to suffer for the sake of the Truth they loved,
we doff our caps, whether they jingle or not, as you please; and if thou
thinkest, good reader, that 'twere folly to lose a life for such a cause,
the bells will match the rest of thy garb. The learning, too, of the
censors and critics was often indeed remarkable. They condemned a
recondite treatise on Trigonometry, because they imagined it contained
heretical opinions concerning the doctrine of the Trinity; and another
work which was devoted to the study of Insects was prohibited, because
they concluded that it was a secret attack upon the Jesuits. Well might
poor Galileo exclaim, "And are these then my judges?" Stossius, who wrote
a goodly book with the title "Concordia rationis et fidei," which was duly
honoured by being burnt at Berlin, thus addresses his slaughtered
offspring, and speculates on the reason of its condemnation: "Ad librum a
ministerio damnatum._
_"Q. Parve liber, quid enim peccasti, dente sinistro.
Quod te discerptum turba sacrata velit?
R. Invisum dixi verum, propter quod et olim,
Vel dominum letho turba sacrata dedit."_
_But think not, O Book-lover, that I am about to record all the race of
fools who have made themselves uncomfortable through their insane love of
writing, nor count all the books which have become instruments of
accusation against their authors. That library would be a large one which
contained all such volumes. I may only write to thee of some of them now,
and if thou shouldest require more, some other time I may tell thee of
them. Perhaps in a corner of thy book-shelves thou wilt collect a store of
Fatal Books, many of which are rare and hard to find. Know, too, that I
have derived some of the titles of works herein recorded from a singular
and rare work of M. John Christianus Klotz, published in Latin at Leipsic,
in the year 1751. To these I have added many others. The Biographical
Dictionary of Bayle is a mine from which I have often quarried, and
discovered there many rare treasures. Our own learned literary historian,
Mr. Isaac Disraeli, has recorded the woes of many of our English writers
in his book entitled "The Calamities of Authors" and also in his
"Curiosities of Literature." From these works I have derived some
information. There is a work by Menkenius, "Analecta de Calamitate
Literatorum"; another by Pierius Valerianus, "De Infelicitate
Literatorum"; another by Spizelius, "Infelix Literatus"; and last but not
least Peignot's "Dictionnaire Critique, Littéraire et Bibliographique, des
Livres condamnés au Feu" which will furnish thee with further information
concerning the woes of authors, if thine appetite be not already sated._
_And if there be any of Folly's crowd who read this book--of those, I
mean, who work and toil by light of midnight lamp, weaving from their
brains page upon page of lore and learning, wearing their lives out, all
for the sake of an ungrateful public, which cares little for their labour
and scarcely stops to thank the toiler for his pains--if there be any of
you who read these pages, it will be as pleasant to you to feel safe and
free from the stern critics' modes of former days, as it is to watch the
storms and tempests of the sea from the secure retreat of your study
chair._
_And if at any time a cross-grained reviewer should treat thy cherished
book with scorn, and presume to ridicule thy sentiment and scoff at thy
style (which Heaven forfend!), console thyself that thou livest in
peaceable and enlightened times, and needest fear that no greater evil can
befall thee on account of thy folly in writing than the lash of his satire
and the bitterness of his caustic pen. After the manner of thy race thou
wilt tempt Fortune again. May'st thou proceed and prosper!_ Vale.
_I desire to express my many thanks to the Rev. Arthur Carr, M.A., late
Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, for his kind assistance in revising the
proofs of this work. It was my intention to dedicate this book to Mr. John
Walter, but alas! his death has deprived it of that distinction. It is
only possible now to inscribe to the memory of him whom England mourns the
results of some literary labour in which he was pleased to take a kindly
interest._
P. H. D.
BARKHAM RECTORY,
_November_, 1894.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THEOLOGY.
Michael Molinos--Bartholomew Carranza--Jerome Wecchiettus--Samuel Clarke--
Francis David--Antonio de Dominis--Noël Bède--William Tyndale--Arias
Montanus--John Huss--Antonio Bruccioli--Enzinas--Louis Le Maistre--Caspar
Peucer--Grotius--Vorstius--Pasquier Quesnel--Le Courayer--Savonarola--
Michael Servetus--Sebastian Edzardt--William of Ockham--Abélard.
CHAPTER II.
FANATICS AND FREE-THINKERS.
Quirinus Kuhlmann--John Tennhart--Jeremiah Felbinger--Simon Morin--
Liszinski--John Toland--Thomas Woolston--John Biddle--Johann Lyser--
Bernardino Ochino--Samuel Friedrich Willenberg.
CHAPTER III.
ASTROLOGY, ALCHEMY, AND MAGIC.
Henry Cornelius Agrippa--Joseph Francis Borri--Urban Grandier--Dr. Dee--
Edward Kelly--John Darrell.
CHAPTER IV.
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.
Bishop Virgil--Roger Bacon--Galileo--Jordano Bruno--Thomas Campanella--De
Lisle de Sales--Denis Diderot--Balthazar Bekker--Isaac de la Peyrère--Abbé
de Marolles--Lucilio Vanini--Jean Rousseau.
CHAPTER V.
HISTORY.
Antonius Palearius--Caesar Baronius--John Michael Bruto--Isaac Berruyer—
Louis Elias Dupin--Noel Alexandre--Peter Giannone--Joseph Sanfelicius
(Eusebius Philopater)--Arlotto--Bonfadio--De Thou--Gilbert Génébrard--
Joseph Audra--Beaumelle--John Mariana--John B. Primi--John Christopher
Rüdiger--Rudbeck--François Haudicquer--François de Rosières--Anthony
Urseus.
CHAPTER VI.
POLITICS AND STATESMANSHIP.
John Fisher--Reginald Pole--"Martin Marprelate"--Udal--Penry--Hacket--
Coppinger--Arthington--Cartwright--Cowell--Leighton--John Stubbs--Peter
Wentworth--R. Doleman--J. Hales--Reboul--William Prynne--Burton—Bastwick
--John Selden--John Tutchin--Delaune--Samuel Johnson--Algernon Sidney--
Edmund Richer--John de Falkemberg--Jean Lenoir--Simon Linguet--Abbé
Caveirac--Darigrand--Pietro Sarpi--Jerome Maggi--Theodore Reinking.
CHAPTER VII.
SATIRE.
Roger Rabutin de Bussy--M. Dassy--Trajan Boccalini--Pierre Billard--Pietro
Aretino--Felix Hemmerlin--John Giovanni Cinelli--Nicholas Francus--Lorenzo
Valla--Ferrante Pallavicino--François Gacon--Daniel Defoe--Du Rosoi--
Caspar Scioppius.
CHAPTER VIII.
POETRY.
Adrian Beverland--Cecco d'Ascoli--George Buchanan--Nicodemus Frischlin--
Clement Marot--Gaspar Weiser--John Williams--Deforges--Théophile--Hélot--
Matteo Palmieri--La Grange--Pierre Petit--Voltaire--Montgomery--Keats--
Joseph Ritson.
CHAPTER IX.
DRAMA AND ROMANCE.
Sir John Yorke and Catholic Plays--Abraham Cowley--Antoine Danchet--Claude
Crébillon--Nogaret--François de Salignac Fénélon.
CHAPTER X.
BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS.
The Printers of Nicholas de Lyra and Caesar Baronius--John Fust--Richard
Grafton--Jacob van Liesvelt--John Lufftius--Robert Stephens (Estienne)--
Henry Stephens--Simon Ockley--Floyer Sydenham--Edmund Castell--Page--John
Lilburne--Etienne Dolet--John Morin--Christian Wechel--Andrew Wechel--
Jacques Froullé--Godonesche--William Anderton.
CHAPTER XI.
SOME LITERARY MARTYRS.
Leland--Strutt--Cotgrave--Henry Wharton--Robert Heron--Collins--William
Cole--Homeric victims--Joshua Barnes--An example of unrequited toil--
Borgarutius—Pays.
INDEX
BOOKS FATAL TO THEIR AUTHORS.
CHAPTER I.
THEOLOGY.
Michael Molinos--Bartholomew Carranza--Jerome Wecchiettus--Samuel Clarke--
Francis David--Antonio de Dominis--Noël Bède--William Tyndale--Arias
Montanus--John Huss--Antonio Bruccioli--Enzinas--Louis Le Maistre--Gaspar
Peucer--Grotius--Vorstius--Pasquier Quesnel--Le Courayer--Savonarola--
Michael Servetus--Sebastian Edzardt--William of Ockham--Abélard.
Since the knowledge of Truth is the sovereign good of human nature, it is
natural that in every age she should have many seekers, and those who
ventured in quest of her in the dark days of ignorance and superstition
amidst the mists and tempests of the sixteenth century often ran counter
to the opinions of dominant parties, and fell into the hands of foes who
knew no pity. Inasmuch as Theology and Religion are the highest of all
studies--the _aroma scientiarum_--they have attracted the most powerful
minds and the subtlest intellects to their elucidation; no other subjects
have excited men's minds and aroused their passions as these have done; on
account of their unspeakable importance, no other subjects have kindled
such heat and strife, or proved themselves more fatal to many of the
authors who wrote concerning them. In an evil hour persecutions were
resorted to to force consciences, Roman Catholics burning and torturing
Protestants, and the latter retaliating and using the same weapons; surely
this was, as Bacon wrote, "to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead of the
likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven; and to set, out of
the bark of a Christian Church, a flag of a bark of pirates and
assassins."
The historian then will not be surprised to find that by far the larger
number of Fatal Books deal with these subjects of Theology and Religion,
and many of them belong to the stormy period of the Reformation. They met
with severe critics in the merciless Inquisition, and sad was the fate of
a luckless author who found himself opposed to the opinions of that dread
tribunal. There was no appeal from its decisions, and if a taint of
heresy, or of what it was pleased to call heresy, was detected in any
book, the doom of its author was sealed, and the ingenuity of the age was
well-nigh exhausted in devising methods for administering the largest
amount of torture before death ended his woes.
_Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum._
Liberty of conscience was a thing unknown in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries; and while we prize that liberty as a priceless possession, we
can but admire the constancy and courage of those who lived in less happy
days. We are not concerned now in condemning or defending their opinions
or their beliefs, but we may at least praise their boldness and mourn
their fate.
The first author we record whose works proved fatal to him was Michael
Molinos, a Spanish theologian born in 1627, a pious and devout man who
resided at Rome and acted as confessor. He published in 1675 _The
Spiritual Manual_, which was translated from Italian into Latin, and
together with a treatise on _The Daily Communion_ was printed with this
title: _A Spiritual Manual, releasing the soul and leading it along the
interior way to the acquiring the perfection of contemplation and the rich
treasure of internal peace_. In the preface Molinos writes: "Mystical
theology is not a science of the imagination, but of feelings; we do not
understand it by study, but we receive it from heaven. Therefore in this
little work I have received far greater assistance from the infinite
goodness of God, who has deigned to inspire me, than from the thoughts
which the reading of books has suggested to me." The object of the work is
to teach that the pious mind must possess quietude in order to attain to
any spiritual progress, and that for this purpose it must be abstracted
from visible objects and thus rendered susceptible of heavenly influence.
This work received the approval of the Archbishop of the kingdom of
Calabria, and many other theologians of the Church. It won for its author
the favour of Cardinal Estraeus and also of Pope Innocent XI. It was
examined by the Inquisition at the instigation of the Jesuits, and passed
that trying ordeal unscathed. But the book raised up many powerful
adversaries against its author, who did not scruple to charge Molinos with
Judaism, Mohammedanism, and many other "isms," but without any avail,
until at length they approached the confessor of the King of Naples, and
obtained an order addressed to Cardinal Estraeus for the further
examination of the book. The Cardinal preferred the favour of the king to
his private friendship. Molinos was tried in 1685, and two years later was
conducted in his priestly robes to the temple of Minerva, where he was
bound, and holding in his hand a wax taper was compelled to renounce
sixty-eight articles which the Inquisition decreed were deduced from his
book. He was afterwards doomed to perpetual imprisonment. On his way to
the prison he encountered one of his opponents and exclaimed, "Farewell,
my father; we shall meet again on the day of judgment, and then it will be
manifest on which side, on yours or mine, the Truth shall stand." For
eleven long years Molinos languished in the dungeons of the Inquisition,
where he died in 1696. His work was translated into French and appeared in
a _Recueil de pièces sur le Quiétisme_, published in Amsterdam 1688.
Molinos has been considered the leader and founder of the Quietism of the
seventeenth century. The monks of Mount Athos in the fourteenth, the
Molinosists, Madame Guyon, Fénélon, and others in the seventeenth century,
all belonged to that contemplative company of Christians who thought that
the highest state of perfection consisted in the repose and complete
inaction of the soul, that life ought to be one of entire passive
contemplation, and that good works and active industry were only fitting
for those who were toiling in a lower sphere and had not attained to the
higher regions of spiritual mysticism. Thus the '[Greek: Aesuchastai]' on
Mount Athos contemplated their nose or their navel, and called the effect
of their meditations "the divine light," and Molinos pined in his dungeon,
and left his works to be castigated by the renowned Bossuet. The pious,
devout, and learned Spanish divine was worthy of a better fate, and
perhaps a little more quietism and a little less restlessness would not be
amiss in our busy nineteenth century.
The noblest prey ever captured by those keen hunters, the Inquisitors, was
Bartholomew Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, in 1558, one of the richest
and most powerful prelates in Christendom. He enjoyed the favour of his
sovereign Philip II. of Spain, whom he accompanied to England, and helped
to burn our English Protestants. Unfortunately in an evil hour he turned
to authorship, and published a catechism under this title: _Commentarios
sobre el Catequismo Cristiano divididos en quatro partes las quales
contienen fodo loque professamor en el sancto baptismo, como se vera en la
plana seguiente dirigidos al serenissimo Roy de España_ (Antwerp). On
account of this work he was accused of Lutheranism, and his capture
arranged by his enemies. At midnight, after the Archbishop had retired to
rest, a knock was heard at the door of the chamber. "Who calls?" asked the
attendant friar. "Open to the Holy Office," was the answer. Immediately
the door flew open, for none dared resist that terrible summons, and
Ramirez, the Inquisitor-General of Toledo, entered. The Archbishop raised
himself in his bed, and demanded the reason of the intrusion. An order for
his arrest was produced, and he was speedily conveyed to the dungeons of
the Inquisition at Valladolid. For seven long years he lingered there, and
was then summoned to Rome in 1566 by Pius V. and imprisoned for six years
in the Castle of St. Angelo. The successor of Pope Pius V., Gregory XIII.,
at length pronounced him guilty of false doctrine. His catechism was
condemned; he was compelled to abjure sixteen propositions, and besides
other penances he was confined for five years in a monastery. Broken down
by his eighteen years' imprisonment and by the hardships he had undergone,
he died sixteen days after his cruel sentence had been pronounced.
[Footnote: Cf. _The Church of Spain_, by Canon Meyrick. (National Churches
Series.)] On his deathbed he solemnly declared that he had never seriously
offended with regard to the Faith. The people were very indignant against
his persecutors, and on the day of his funeral all the shops were closed
as on a great festival. His body was honoured as that of a saint. His
captors doubtless regretted his death, inasmuch as the Pope is said to
have received a thousand gold pieces each month for sparing his life, and
Philip appropriated the revenues of his see for his own charitable
purposes, which happened at that time to be suppression of heresy in the
Netherlands by the usual means of rack and fire and burying alive helpless
victims.
A very fatal book was one entitled _Opus de anno primitivo ab exordia
mundi, ad annum Julianum accommodato, et de sacrorum temporum ratione.
Augustae-Vindelicorum_, 1621, _in folio magno_. It is a work of Jerome
Wecchiettus, a Florentine doctor of theology. The Inquisition attacked and
condemned the book to the flames, and its author to perpetual
imprisonment. Being absent from Rome he was comparatively safe, but
surprised the whole world by voluntarily submitting himself to his
persecutors, and surrendering himself to prison. This extraordinary
humility disarmed his foes, but it did not soften much the hearts of the
Inquisitors, who permitted him to end his days in the cell. The causes of
the condemnation of the work are not very evident. One idea is that in his
work the author pretended to prove that Christ did not eat the passover
during the last year of His life; and another states that he did not
sufficiently honour the memory of Louis of Bavaria, and thus aroused the
anger of the strong supporters of that ancient house.
The first English author whose woes we record is Samuel Clarke, who was
born at Norwich in 1675, and was for some time chaplain to the bishop of
that see. He was very intimate with the scientific men of his time, and
especially with Newton. In 1704 he published his Boyle Lectures, _A
Treatise on the Being and Attributes of God, and on Natural and Revealed
Religion_, which found its way into other lands, a translation being
published in Amsterdam in 1721. Our author became chaplain to Queen Anne
and Rector of St. James's. He was a profoundly learned and devout student,
and obtained a European renown as a true Christian philosopher. In
controversy he encountered foemen worthy of his steel, such as Spinosa,
Hobbes, Dodwell, Collins, Leibnitz, and others. But in 1712 he published
_The Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity_, which was declared to be opposed
to the Christian belief and tainted with Arianism. The attention of
Parliament was called to the book; the arguments were disputed by Edward
Wells, John Edwards, and William Sommer; and Clarke was deprived of his
offices. The charge of heterodoxy was certainly never proved against him;
he did good service in trying to stem the flood of rationalism prevalent
in his time, and his work was carried on by Bishop Butler. His
correspondence with Leibnitz on Time, Space, Necessity, and Liberty was
published in 1717, and his editions of Caesar and Homer were no mean
contributions to the study of classical literature.
In the sixteenth century there lived in Hungary one Francis David, a man
learned in the arts and languages, but his inconstancy and fickleness of
mind led him into diverse errors, and brought about his destruction. He
left the Church, and first embraced Calvinism; then he fled into the camp
of the Semi-Judaising party, publishing a book _De Christo non invocando_,
which was answered by Faustus Socinus, the founder of Socinianism. The
Prince of Transylvania, Christopher Bathori, condemned David as an impious
innovator and preacher of strange doctrines, and cast him into prison,
where he died in 1579. There is extant a letter of David to the Churches
of Poland concerning the millennium of Christ.
Our next author was a victim to the same inconstancy of mind which proved
so fatal to Francis David, but sordid reasons and the love of gain without
doubt influenced his conduct and produced his fickleness of faith. Antonio
de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, was a shining light of the Roman
Church at the end of the sixteenth century. He was born in 1566, and
educated by the Jesuits. He was learned in history and in science, and was
the first to discover the cause of the rainbow, his explanation being
adopted and perfected by Descartes. The Jesuits obtained for him the
Professorship of Mathematics at Padua, and of Logic and Rhetoric at
Brescia. After his ordination he became a popular preacher and was
consecrated Bishop of Segni, and afterwards Archbishop of Spalatro in
Dalmatia. He took a leading part in the controversy between the Republic
of Venice and the Pope, and after the reconciliation between the two
parties was obliged by the Pope to pay an annual pension of five hundred
crowns out of the revenues of his see to the Bishop of Segni. This highly
incensed the avaricious prelate, who immediately began to look out for
himself a more lucrative piece of preferment. He applied to Sir Dudley
Carleton, the English Ambassador at Venice, to know whether he would be
received into the Church of England, as the abuses and corruptions of the
Church of Rome prevented him from remaining any longer in her communion.
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