Nicholas V

“ When the anarchy of Basel drove him from it he did what in him lay at Florence (1439) to promote the short-lived union with the Greeks. And he perished in Hungary at the battle of Varna, still fighting on behalf of a united and reformed Christendom. Nicholas V, though intent chiefly on restoring literature, sent Cusanus with ample powers, as we have seen, into the North. But his own desire was that Rome should be a missionary of culture, when what the world needed was an economic and moral restoration. ”

“ By the bull Rex regum, January 5, 1443, Eugenius IV. had taken neutral ground in the dispute between Portugal and Castile concerning their rights in Africa; by the bull Dum diversas, June 18, 1452, Nicholas V. granted King Alfonso general and indefinite powers to search out and conquer all pagans, enslave them and appropriate their lands and goods. [21] The bull Romanus pontifex, on the other hand, settled the dispute between Portugal and Castile in favor of the former, and, apparently for the first time, [22] granted Portugal exclusive rights in a vast southerly region. ”

“ NICHOLAS, Sir EDWARD (1593–1669) , secretary of state to Charles I and Charles II, descended of the Nicholas family of Winterbourne Earls, Wiltshire, was the eldest son of John Nicholas who died at Winterbourne Earls in 1644, and of Susan his wife, a daughter of William Hunton, of East Knoyle (see Pedigree in Hoare, Wiltshire, v. 96) . He was born at his father's house on Tuesday, 4 April 1593 (Winterbourne Earls Register; Hoare, ubi supra) , and was ‘bred’ there until he was about ten years old, when he was sent with his brother Matthew (see below) to Salisbury grammar school. ”

“ It will be noticed that this bull sanctions the enslaving of the infidels. Two interesting bulls respecting slaves from the Canary Islands, printed in appendix II. of Carácter de la Conquista y Coloni­ zación de las Islas Canarias: Discurios leídos ante la Real Academia de la Historia ( 1901) by Don Rafael Torres Campos, show that Eugenius IV., the immediate prede­ cessor of Nicholas V., not only wished to protect from slavery and annoyance those aborigines who had embraced the faith, but also expressed a fear that dread of captivity would deter others from conversion. ”

“ Hostium is for ostium. ↑ The first natives captured beyond Cape Bojador were brought to Portugal by Antam Gonçalves in 1441 or 1442. Azurara, Guinea, chs. 12 and 13. ↑ This word appears in this same form in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Decretal. Gregor. IX., lib. V., tit. VI., c 6, ed. E. Friedberg, who gives as variant forms lignamina and ligneamina. ↑ A royal charter, dated Oct. 22, 1443, forbidding any one to pass beyond Cape Bojador without a license from Prince Henry, is printed in Algs. Docs., pp. 8-9. ↑ The Papal bull of June 18,1452 ( Nicholas V.) . ”

“ It must be admitted, however, if we can believe the concurrent opinion of all the foreigners resident here with whom I have conversed, that the Emperor Nicholas is one of the best of despots. As a man of excellent private character, as a husband, a father, a brother, and a friend, his life presents a fit example for all his subjects. But still he is a despot. But little occurred on my presentation to his Majesty worthy of repetition, except what is contained 143in the despatch. He told me he had one American in his service as his aide—that was Mr. ”

“ The next morning Nicholas visited the princess, and to his surprise and delight found that she had recovered her strength. "This is indeed joy, O my princess!" said he, kneeling; when, taking him by the hand, the royal lady said, "Kneel not before her whom thou hast so much befriended, O noble youth; for it is naught but the poor fatherless girl La-Loo who is before thee, and would indeed be thy sister."
"This is not possible; the daughter of the Ming can never be less in the world than its princess—first in beauty as in rank," said Nicholas. ”

“ It is probable that King Alfonso deemed the time especially propitious for a settlement of the dispute over the proprietorship of Morocco, Guinea, and the Guinea trade. In attempting to establish his claims, he would naturally seek aid from the Pope, for that potentate's independent position made him the arbitrator between nations, while his spiritual authority, in particular his powers of excommunication and interdict, gave weight to his decisions. ”

“ Nicholas in good time came into the ancient _Colonie_, which being, as it were, at the outskirts of Fort Orange, was inhabited by many people not well to do in the world. He descended the chimney of an old weatherworn house that bore evident marks of poverty, for he is not one of those saints that hanker after palaces and turn their backs on their friends. It is his pleasure to seek out and administer to the innocent gratifications of those who are obliged to labour all the year round, and can only spare time to be merry at Christmas and Newyear. He is indeed the poor man's saint. ”

“ In 1441 slaves and gold-dust were first brought back to Portugal from beyond Cape Bojador. By 1454 trade with that region had greatly developed [8] so that Cadamosto, the Venetian, wrote that "from no traffic in the world could the like [gain] be had". [9]
The kings of Castile, basing their claims on the same grounds that they had employed in respect to the Canaries--possession by their ancestors, the Visigothic kings--asserted their right to the conquest of the lands of Africa [10] and to Guinea and the Guinea trade. ”

“ In 1344, on the ground that he wished to Christianize these islands, Don Luis de la Cerda, admiral of France and great-grandson of Alfonso the Wise, obtained a bull of investiture from Pope Clement VI., and was crowned Prince of FortuniaThe Canary Islands were believed to be the Fortunatae Insulae of the a ncients. at Avignon. At this time the kings of Portugal and Castile agreed to set aside their own opposing claims to the archipelago and to help Luis in the enterprise to which the Pope had thus lent his support. ”

“ Also by the laudable endeavor and industry of the said infante, very many inhabitants or dwellers in divers islands situated in the said sea, coming to the knowledge of the true God, have received holy baptism, to the praise and glory of God, the salvation of the souls of many, the propagation also of the orthodox faith, and the increase of divine worship. ”

“ In March 1452 he crowned Frederick III. as emperor in St Peter’s, the last occasion of the coronation of an emperor at Rome.
Under the generous patronage of Nicholas humanism made rapid strides. He employed hundreds of copyists and scholars, giving as much as ten thousand gulden for a metrical translation of Homer, and founded a library of nine thousand volumes. Nicholas himself was a man of vast erudition, and his friend Aeneas Silvius (later Pope Pius II.) said of him that “what he does not know is outside the range of human knowledge.” ”

“ Moreover, as spiritual fathers of all the peoples of the earth, the Popes had long undertaken to regulate the relations--including the commercial relations--between Christians and unbelievers. The Lateran Council of 1179 prohibited the sale to the Saracens of arms, iron, wood to be used in construction, and anything else useful for warfare. Certain later popes prohibited all commerce with the infidels. ”

“ Nicholas I died as grandly as he had lived, in the firm assurance that he had done his duty. The nations of Europe watched him shining as a pillar of fire amid the clouds of anarchy which beset the dawn of his reign. They stood aghast at his aggressions on Turkey and the relentless severity with which he crushed the Polish and Hungarian rebellions. For a generation he was the sword drawn against revolution. He saved Austria from dismemberment, and checked the premature creation of a democratic German Empire. ”

“ It further declared that King Alfonso, his successors, and Prince Henry might make laws or impose restrictions and tribute in regard to these lands and seas, and that they and persons licensed by them might trade there with the infidels, except in the prohibited articles, but that no other Catholics should trade there or enter those seas or harbors under pain of excommunication or interdict. ”

“ A large number of these have been converted to the Catholic faith, and it is hoped, by the help of divine mercy, that if such progress be continued with them, either those peoples will be converted to the faith or at least the souls of many of them will be gained for Christ. ”

“ When the Emperor Nicholas came to Rome, he went to pay his respects to the Pope, who received him very coldly. “You are a great king,” said Pius IX. “You are one of the mightiest monarchs in the world, and I am a feeble old man, the servant of servants; but I cite you to meet me again, to meet me before the throne of the Judge of the world, and to answer there for your treatment of the nuns at Minsk.” ”

“ Persons who assert that Nicholas has no ambition, that all thirst of conquest is foreign to his character, are perhaps right; but greatly do those err who believe that he contents him with playing the part of the first Tory in Europe, and thinks only of closing the Russian frontier to liberal ideas, of drilling his guards and passing brilliant reviews. The works done, doing, and planned, at Nicolajeff, Sevastopol, Gumri, Erivan, prove the potent monarch to have ulterior views. For himself, he may be content not to enlarge the enormous territory within whose limits his voice is law. ”

“ With all our republican prejudices, we cannot deny that Nicholas is a man of talent, with a mind liberalized by education; we have been informed, also, that he is a man of serious and religious character;—he certainly, acting as he does in the eye of all the world, must have great restraint upon him from public opinion, and a high sense of character. But who is the man to whom American laws intrust powers more absolute than those of Nicholas of Russia, or Ferdinand of Naples? ”

“ The Empress considered him as the God-sent representative of the Russian nation, of that mass of peasants which, as she was convinced, was the firm mainstay of autocracy in Russia. And in the later years of Nicholas II.'s reign, the years of great trial and danger, Alexandra Feodorovna stepped in more and more often to direct the Tsar's choice of his ministers and to prevent him from making concessions to the spirit of the time. ”

“ Ex inde quoque multi Guinei et alii nigri vi capti, quidam etiam non prohibitarum rerum permutatione, seu alio legitimo contractu emptionis ad dicta sunt regna transmissi; quorum inibi in copioso numero ad Catholicam fidem conversi extiterunt, speraturque, divina favente clementia, quod si hujusmodi cum eis continuetur progressus, vel populi ipsi ad fidem convertentur, vel saltem multorum ex eis anime Christo lucrifient. ”

“ The Emperor Nicholas himself, the grandfather of the present man, the one who died from the Crimean War, the last perhaps of the Autocrats with a mystical belief in the Divine character of his mission, showed some interest in this pair of married lovers. It is true that Nicholas kept a watchful eye on all the doings of the great Polish nobles. The young people leading a life appropriate to their station were obviously wrapped up in each other ”

“ If I chastise the Poles, it is because they have revolted against my authority; but to you they have done no harm, and you are destined to reign over them. You have no right to make any difference in your future subjects. Be assured, such sentiments make bad sovereigns."
The sentiment of gratitude was no more a stranger to the Emperor Nicholas than the spirit of justice. True, he guarded as faithfully the remembrance of injuries as of services, and if he never forgot those who had served or defended him, neither did he ever forgive those who had made the least attempt against his power. ”

“ A few days before Nicholas's self-will brought him to his deathbed we saw him ride through the St. Petersburg streets with no pomp and no attendants, yet in as great pride as ever despotism gave a man. At his approach, nobles uncovered and looked docile, soldiers faced about and became statues, long-bearded peasants bowed to the ground with the air of men on whose vision a miracle flashes. ”

“ And we decree that whosoever shall infringe these orders [shall incur the following penalties] , besides the punishments pronounced by law against those who carry arms and other prohibited things to any of the Saracens, which we wish them to incur by so doing; if they be single persons, they shall incur the sentence of excommunication; if a community or corporation of a city, castle, village, or place, that city, castle, village, or place shall be thereby subject to the interdict ”

“ Nicholas's honesty and dislike of intrigue had moved the ill-will of the queen (Ormonde Papers, i. 206) , and her anger was much increased by his ‘roughness and sharpness’ in pressing Charles II to raise money by selling her jewels (Nicholas Correspondence, i. 156) . Her influence led to Nicholas's practical exclusion from the prince's counsels (see Clarendon, Rebellion, xii. 63–5; Nicholas Correspondence, i. 130) . Though Charles had promised him the post of secretary at St. Germains, he preferred to employ the queen's private secretary, Robert Long ”

“ It confirmed the bull Dum diversas, specified the district to which it applied--Ceuta, and the district from Capes Bojador and Não through all Guinea, and "beyond towards that southern shore"--and declared that this, together with all other lands acquired by Portugal from the infidels before or after 1452, belonged to King Alfonso, his successors, and Prince Henry, and to no others. ”